The Will To Be an Artist

What is it that makes an artist?

I believe that anyone can be an artist, that it is in human nature to be creative. I've put a lot of energy into the concept-- study, teaching, writing, workshops-- all exploring how creativity can help us and open us up to our own lives.

Recently, though, I came upon a man who wrote that NOT everyone can be an artist. It got me thinking about some of the problems I've had in teaching some of my classes and workshops. Sometimes, people just get stuck, and they don't seem to be able to let go. In my mind, it is so easy to be creative-- but my friends and my students, I watch them just get-- flumoxed. Stopped, blocked. Blocked. Hmm. Creative block. (But I don't believe in that.)

Are these people the non artists that the guy was talking about?

I mean, maybe not everyone can be a painter, or a violinist, or a ballet dancer-- maybe we don't all have the physical capabilities for some art forms. Maybe our synapses don't snap that way, but we all have creative capabilities. Whether it is our visual sense, or grace, or great pitch, or a mind that thinks in music, or a way with herbs and spices, or the ability to put two pieces of wood together so it stays. I don't know. Maybe we're good with getting a group of people to work together happily. Doesn't it depend on what your definition of art is?

But the truth is, not everyone is an artist. And maybe society wouldn't work if everyone were ARTISTS. We do need doctors and sanitation workers and store clerks and presidents and such. Everyone has a role to play... but still, I have the question.

What IS an artist?

It's not about having some great skill or talent. Really, I don't think so. I've known lots of really talented people who aren't artists. I myself can sing pretty well, but I don't consider myself a singer.

I think being an ARTIST, really, is about committing to art. It's about being dedicated to your artform-- whether it's painting or baking or acting or blogging. It means you live your life with your art in the forefront. When you go about your daily business, there is always the active possibility that you could create something, or have a discussion about art, or witness something that gets you going into a new possibility for your art. Maybe you don't live and breathe painting or dancing, but when you go back to your art (which you always will, because you are dedicated) the life that you lived comes back and informs what you create.

I don't think being an artist means you have to model yourself after Picasso, or Pollock, or Van Gogh, or anyone out there. There are so many ways to BE an artist, and you don't have to be starving, or crazy, or addicted or a selfish bastard. Maybe you don't even have to show your stuff to anyone else.

But it does mean that you have to put in the thought, the time, the practice, the emotions, the experience, the experiments, the energy, the words.

Maybe it IS true that not everyone can be an artist, but I don't think it's anything that we're born with that says we are or aren't an artist. Honestly, I think being an artist takes a desire-- and not just a desire-- a will to be an artist.

It's the will to be an artist that makes an artist. Even if you are the most talented painter or singer or dancer in the world, if you lack the will and only paint or dance or sing when the notion strikes you, you might as well be chewing bubble gum. It's nice and fun and has a great flavor, but really, how far does it go beyond the moment?

On the other hand, if you aren't spectacularly "talented"-- aren't born with that perfect hand-eye coordination or the luck to be raised by people who want you to be an artist-- and you really have the WILL to be an artist, to explore life, to go deeper and challenge yourself, and learn your medium and practice techniques and face your fears of being not good enough or not an artist, or just too much of a damn human-- then, you know what? I think that you really are an artist.