What Does It Take?

I'll begin this post by stating for everyone who will read it that what I have to say here has no conclusion. I suppose that it's more of a 'brain dump' of something that I had on my mind for a little while today.

As I was looking at some of the photography and graphics work that I have done over the past year and was comparing it to the work of some budding 'artists' (it will soon become clear why that word is in quotes) that I made the acquaintances of in Savannah, GA over the summer... and my question is, what really makes someone an artist?

Wikipedia defines an artist as, "...a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art". And while the term 'artist' traditionally refers to the field of the visual arts, I am also curious about the other fields that are more broadly considered arts as well. Among these could be the culinary arts or performance artists. At what point does a person have the grounds to say that they have surpassed the point of being a dilletante and have reached the point of being an artist?

And it being an 'artist' a permanent state of being once you've reached it? Or is it something more like a phase that you can drift in and out of? For instance, during the school year the majority of my photography is portraiture and concert photography that I do for a profit but whenever school is not in session I have the time to create my own ideas and stage them just to my liking. Is it only in that time when I should consider it art? Or is it all a form of art because I do consider my for profit work to have my own unique spin on it?

That's all I have for now... I could consider the subject for much longer and pose many more questions, but I'll leave it at that.

Dance.

I did some portraits for my friend Brooke las weekend, and I'm very pleased with how they turned out. I don't usually enjoy this type of rote, straight forward photography but this shoot was very fun and taught me a thing or two. From this shoot I definitely learned some resourcefulness (due to having to rig a pseudo photo studio out of my bed sheets, and it also helped me to gain a little bit of appreciation for people in this field. I did not realize quite how challenging it could be. So for all of those who have heard me talk trash on boring portraiture, I appologize.

The Art of Interaction.

The way that people interact with each other has always fascinated me. Whether it’s between two strangers engaging in small talk or a couple of old friends, people reveal a lot more than they think by the way that they partake in social situations. For instance, I recently stopped into a McDonalds to get a quick coffee and I happened to see a man who seemed to have set up shop at one of the tables equip with a laptop, briefcase, file folders, etc. We made seemingly awkward eye contact as I entered and walked up to the counter but thought nothing of it, but after I’d made my purchase I walked by him to wait for one of my friends. As I did this he said excuse me and asked me if I liked poetry. Now, at this point I was thinking in my head that this was a creepy middle-aged man who just wanted to talk to me (because this has happened far more times than I’d like), but I paused for a second to hear what he had to say. Saw my skepticism and explained that he was doing some work there to get out of the house and that when he needed a break from working that he would write little poems, and he asked if I’d spare a moment to give my opinion on one. Looking around the McDonalds and seeing my friend had not returned, I told him I had time for just one or two short ones but still did not get too close. The poems were simple and nice, though rather common place, and after I’d read two my friend returned. The man then shook my hand and thanked me for the comments and I wished him a good night.

It is interesting that this man seemed so comfortable with asking any old person to spare a minute or two with him just to have a bit of company. Had it been me working at a public place I most likely would have just gone about my business and kept to myself. On the opposite end of the spectrum, one of my closest friends would be the polar opposite. Every time we are out together he will make conversation with just about anybody like they were old friends. I really admire this sense of social comfort and confidence in this way. His happy and easygoing personality draws people to him, and I always enjoy being able to witness it.

I have also noticed that people tend to act dramatically differently when they are with people that they consider friends in contrast to acquaintances. For example, despite my tendency to seem shy in front of people that are new or that I am uncomfortable with, when I am with my close friends, like the one that I just spoke about, I am very gregarious. And when this friend comes out of situations where we are in public surrounded by a good number of people he becomes slightly more quiet and perhaps even a bit reserved. I know that my change in personality is a result of my level of comfort with him and I feel like I can let my guard down and be myself. Though I obviously can’t be certain, I think that the same reasoning is behind his personality change as well. From my viewpoint it gives me the impression that when he is with me that he feels like the need to act so completely extroverted is gone and that he can relax a bit.

The art of interaction has been evaluated for years and I’m sure that it will be for years to come. Though I’m not sure how much progress there really is to make in such a matter because it will forever be impossible for one person to get inside the head of another to understand the thought processes behind what motivates their behavior. None the less, it is still fascinating to think about.

Ink.

Perhaps it's a generational thing, but something that I don't understand is certain people's aversion to tattoos. Years ago tattoos were seen as a sign of rebellion or of a person that was in a 'rough crowd', and some people still seem to believe this. Today tattoos are much more commonplace and main stream. Now, I'm not saying that tattoos are things that everybody should get. They're something that some people are just not interested in, but that does not mean that they should show a bias against people with them. There is an especially big bias against the tattooed members of our society when it comes to the work force. I have a very good friend that has found it to be very difficult getting a new job because of his tattoos, and I think that this discrimination is absurd. There are a host of laws that prevent discrimination by employers, including ones regarding physical appearance, yet managers still discriminate against people who happen to have tattoos. I find this completely ridiculous. There are lots of people, including my friend, that would prove to be very good dedicated workers if given the opportunity.
There is a whole art form dedicated to tattoos, and who is any employer to deny a person a job based on their decision to display art on their bodies? I think that it is beautiful if someone is confident enough in themselves to want to display something that is important to them in ink on their bodies forever. I understand that people sometimes end up getting a tattoo and regretting it later in life, but I think that in that circumstance they should have spent more time considering their decision before it was made. I plan on getting sever tattoos in my lifetime, and I have been planning my first one for about two years now. I formed an idea, drew several sketches of it, then took time to think about it more, and repeated that process several times. I want the tattoo because it is something that I drew so it is a personal creation of mine, and it is symbolic to me. I know that I may have to work a little extra hard to get where I want in life because I've chosen to ink my body, but I'm prepared to do that and I dare any unaccepting employer to say that I won't be able to prove them wrong.

Impermanence.

Something that I don’t understand about the tendencies of humans in our culture is the need that people feel to hold on to everything. It seems that the majority of people derive their sense of accomplishment from a tangible item that they can display for others to see. Having said this, I am no different. While the majority of people choose to display their success with things that they purchase, I find that my strong tie to physical items is my artwork. I find that after I have invested myself in a piece that I can not let it go because I feel that the time will be a loss when in reality this is not the case. The sense of accomplishment should be derived from knowing that you accomplished the job successfully and that if you did it once, that you are fully capable of doing it again. I have heard that many teachers will create an assignment for students to complete that they then destroy in order to teach them a lesson on this very matter, but I’d never encountered such a teacher until first semester of this year. The assignment was in my drawing and composition class and we were supposed to draw an iconic celebrity on a piece of Mylar paper. The members of the class chose very good subjects such as Betty White, Obama, Hugh Laurie and my choice, James Dean. After my classmates and I had spent a minimum of a week’s amount of work on the drawings our teacher told us to take block erasers and slash the papers. So, a very frustrated and upset class spent the next five minutes erasing into their works of art. Though at the time I was HUGELY aggravated, the lesson most definitely taught me something. It taught me to learn to hold items less preciously. It made me realize that there are certain cultures and religions that stress the concept of impermanence as one of their principle values. If you've taken a world religions class then you know that in Buddhism, the monks construct elaborate sand mandalas only to destroy them upon completion so that they may practice their patience and concentration while meditating. Chalk street artists also have to be able to deal with the concept that their creations will be completly washed away at the next rain. Perhaps the people of our society could benefit from the lessions that these practices have to teach us. Any thoughts?