Copyright.

The other day the topic of body art came up into a conversation that I was having. While this topic isn't really unusual for me to discuss with people, this time I was thinking about it in a rather different way.

This discussion revolved around a tattoo artist's right to their own work. If an illustrator can draw an image and, if he so chooses, get that image copyrighted, can a tattoo artist do the same? Even though an illustrator works on paper and a tattoo artist works on a body does that matter? Does the canvas make a difference?

Now, I haven't done any research on the topic, so perhaps a tattoo artist can copyright their work. But if they infact can not I think that is ridiculous. Every artist has the right to their own work if that is what they desire. (Yes, I know that last sentence seems to go against my views of 'world property', but not everyone has the weird hippie ideals that I do.)

But even though I do not believe in the idea of personal property I find the whole concept behind the copyright process interesting. So, if the mood strikes I'll do a little research.

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.