Again Gabrielle has got me thinking. I really wish you wouldn't do this Gabrielle. I have things to do! Eggs to lay! Grin (The chicken song for the uninitiated) Fortunately I had to go into town so I was able to think as I went my busy round and it didn't interfere with what I was doing. What is art? What is an artist? Well to be bluntly honest I really couldn't say for definite and I have come to the conclusion that I don't care! Is it important to know these things to be creative? In my opinion NO! One just does! You can call lots of things art but just by giving them a name doesn't make them art. Having thought about this in depth while in the bank I decided that art makes you think and stimulates the senses. So is a hand-made card art? Or a vase of flowers? Or a designer garden? They will all make you think but do they stimulate the senses? And will they make you think in depth? To me this is veering into the craft versus art land and I don't want to go there. So basically I decided that I just don't care. If I like what I do; if it gives me pleasure; if I'm satisfied with the process; if my time has been well spent; if I've learnt something along the way whether about the process or about me then that is what makes me happy and that is my art! I am confident enough in what I do to show it to the world; if they like it then great; if they don't I'm not going to cry though I might look at what I've done again with fresh eyes to see if I've missed something. After all one is always learning. And part of the process is asking for critiques from fellow 'artists'. There is no end in creativity, it goes on and on, growing all the time. At the end of the day the pleasure and need for me is to create something. So I have decided I am not an artist. I am a designer! That's what I am. My work is my original design, created by me primarily for me but available for anyone interested to see. By now I was back at the car and felt just like I did when at Art School and having to write a thesis by Friday! Grin I did better in those days too as I was more direct in my thinking but now with age I realise that there are many shades of grey and no one size fits all answer. Also my eternal Gemini attitude keeps veering off at a tangent and seeing things from the completely opposite direction just to make life difficult. So I shall go and have coffee with my mum and leave with the statement that I believe as long as there are people in the world creating something that gives pleasure, wakes up the senses and adds to ones perceptions then we will have gold at the end of the rainbow! No matter what that creativity is!
Post Script: Interesting book to read is The Meaning of Art by Herbert Read which was first published in 1931 and reprinted several times.
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"What is art? What is an artist?"
ReplyDeleteFWIW, Mr. Merriam and Mr. Webster define "artist" as follows:
"one who professes and practices an imaginative art"
And they define "art" as (among other things:
"the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects; also : works so produced"
I agree that defining it doesn't matter as much as doing it, but thought I'd throw that out there anyway because I found it interesting. :-)
Val, I totally agree with everything you said...except for one thing, I am not an artist or a designer, although I do both, I am a quiltmaker. But what would you do without my philosophical meanderings? Remember "a life unexamined, etc." Anyhoo, someone has to stir the pot, might as well be a brainless wonder, like me :)
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