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07/15/2005: "Who is an Artist?" by Ausra Larbey
If I wrote this text few years ago, I would have phrased the question differently - something like: Are You an Artist?. However, I am much wiser now. So, the milder version is: Who is an Artist?. Artist needs to experience and understand life. Right? Even tree hugging being naive and the like is life experience as well (thank you to people sending comments to my blogs). Whatever it is, to hear about it is not enough. To do it yourself is more reliable. Should artists make their life philosophy to mix in all areas and activities of human life? The more removed this activity is from the matters of the art world, the better: the more genuine the experience would become?
In their life time many artists tried that one. Not because they were looking for superior, different source of inspiration because that was what life dealt to them. Some of them did it prior to entering art world as creators themselves, others to support their art financially. In reality many artists stay as much as they can within the world of art. Their environment deals with things arty most of the time in material and spiritual sense. There are fellow artist to share ideas with, draw inspiration from, organize shows together, also there is an art market to be dealt with to get some income, and art suppliers to spend it.
One more thing artist needs some time and resources, a physical space to create his/her work. It is not easy to squeeze a full time work in the office, for example, in this set-up. One can not ignore the system of forums, grants, awards, etc. However, friend of mine, a very good sculptor expresses his belief, that applying for a grant would limit his artistic independence and integrity.
Does great work always come from a studio of a lonely, misunderstood, excentric artist, as per the image that was formed in the Impressionist days and further developed in the 20th century? Here I remember how surprised I was to find out that the painter that I admired for his dramatic, emotionally charged paintings did his best work during few years when he stayed at home to look after his small daughter while wife worked. His most adventurous event of the day was to feed ducks at the local park. As a contrast to his example, recently I came across a book by a person who spent most of his life in different hot spots of the world. He experienced highs and lows of human life and emotions, re-evaluated things known many times over. And the book? Interesting read, hardly art, though. How does that work? Does the artist have a different way of feeling and communicating, wherever he/she is? I tend to think yes. An artist has a certain way of looking at a surrounding world and, most importantly, is able to express it in an unique form that can be decoded by others. Is it formed by the extraordinary experiences that happened in the life of the artist? Can this special way of seeing world be learned, developed, invented, inherited, discovered by accident? Can it be written in a formula?
