Beyond Art Studio Walls
Greetings All,
I have decided to do a few blog posts based on questions my students have sent. These are questions that they might have always wanted to ask, but were just too shy to do in a group setting. The questions could be on how we keep ourselves centered and focused in our creative lives or about materials and techniques that they think they should already know or have forgotten. I encouraged them to approach this as if there were no dumb questions.
Here is one that stood out:
“How do you transition from doing your art to being an artist?”
Good question. This can almost translate to, “How do you know you’re an artist?”
Who gets to choose such a complex job? “Us” on the inside or “Them” on the outside?
This feels a little muddy when we take into account our rapidly evolving fast-paced information world broadcasted through a bombarding of news sources and social media. There is so much out there and so much comparing and contrasting that we can do. Sometimes we have to be on guard to not allow ourselves to be seduced by the finished products of surface handling.
In other words, we have to work a little harder these days to keep our intentional focus inside ourselves, remembering why we create and bringing our artist minds and souls to the table, which brings our unique views & perceptions to the world in which we live. We gather from the inside out, not the outside in.
So what happens if we first turn the proposed question around and ask it differently?
So how do I transition from doing my honest art to being an artist?
Some questions I would ask back:
What do you want to communicate to the world?
Have you honed in on it before bridging the work into the world?
Being an artist is a choice. It’s an act of bravery to claim to ourselves first and foremost, “I am an artist.”
Take time to connect the dots. Turn your passions, beliefs and ideas into broader questions and responses in the work you make. Hug up to your truth. When we do that first, the techniques, styles and honing in on our “craft” become secondary.
We don’t transition from one to the other; we integrate and become one and the same.
And this starts with our beliefs.
How about you? Do you have a creative life as an artist that you are waiting to step into once you feel others have or even that you have given yourself permission?
How about you? Do you find yourself feeling a division between claiming yourself as an artist and doing the work?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for reading,
Thank you for your support!