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.
I am honestly fully confused by everything you just typed. It seems like a sound topic, but not being an artist myself nor ever being one my opinion probably means poop. But, I think you're a great artist and that its something you'll never be without. Its a creative gene that you just have and can hone to whatever you put your mind too!
ReplyDeleteTwo thoughts occur to me: many cultures in the world do not distinguish between CRAFT and ART, though in our culture, we seem to think if something has a USE then it is not ART. Don't get that myself, and it seemed to me that is what you are getting to in the second half of the post. I always thought practicing your craft was integral to creating art. The more I do something, the better I get at it, and then the more creative and original my work is.
ReplyDelete2) found this quote Friday from Seth Godin, thought it applied:
"Art is what we call...the thing an artist does. It's not the medium or the oil or the price or whether it hangs on a wall or you eat it. What matters, what makes it art, is that the person who made it overcame the resistance, ignored the voice of doubt and made something worth making. Something risky. Something human.
Art is not in the eye of the beholder. It's in the soul of the artist."
3) don't forget great writing. it's my favorite art.