Friday, April 14, 2017

"Are You an Artist?"

"Are you an artist?" someone asked me, again.

Are you?

I'm really not. 
I draw pictures, like kids do, because drawing is fun: I just never stopped when I grew up. It's not a huge part of how I express myself––that would be words.
But I guess I'm into it.

That's me ^ on the shore of Lake Superior in 1992, drawing with a burned stick, and me yesterday, touching up the ABCderian.

There's this too, which I posted a few years ago. Whatever I am, seems I've been it all along.

4 comments:

Michael Leddy said...

What does it mean when people ask that question? “Do you do it professionally?” “Do you earn your living by it?” “Are you, like, really, really good?” Is Thomas Kinkade more of an artist than any garden-variety kid?

I think what it probably means is that they don’t do art, can’t imagine doing it, and so regard anyone doing it as in some way set apart. I think.

Frex said...

MICHAEL: That's a great question: What does that question mean?
I answered it here for myself--(making art is not crucial to how I explore, understand, and express myself)--but I think you're right, that's not what people are usually asking.

Sometimes it's clear they mean something like,
"Are you better at that than I am because you're trained in and consistently practice art-making, and therefore I don't need to feel inferior because you are a different kind of person than I am?"

And when people mean that, I feel weird because compared to my friends who are artists, I'm not (trained or consistent), and I kind of wriggle and say, "I'm not really an artist but I make art a lot."
Maybe I should just say yes.


ArtSparker said...

Drawing with a burned stick. Formidable!

Fresca said...

SPARKER: I love that you caught that. It was wonderful---I'd picked the stick out of someone else's old campfire. I can still remember the feel--and sound!-- of it on paper.