Creativity v/s Artist
I am sick of everyone who has had one lesson in art immediately setting themselves up in that profession, as an artist.
Creativity makes you whole and balanced and happy no matter what profession you have…Anything in life can be seen as a chore or a creative act. Zen Buddhists teach how to wash dishes and become enlightened, while doing that creatively.
Artists are professionals with that particular calling, a vocation. You don’t have to be an artist to live creatively. Doctors and engineers can be creative or work by rote…
Today in the gallery a man came up to me to say he is an engineer by profession but has decided to be an artist now that he is retired and made a better mobile with better action configuration than a well known mobile artist. He than asked me how he should price his art? He obviously thinks that if he makes something technically similar to Picasso he can charge the same fee or close to it.
Well needless to say I gave him a piece of my mind. First I said art is not about technique it is about communicating something to the world. Good technique in your chosen media just makes it easier to say whatever it is you are meant to say.
I suggested it is a good idea that he wants to expand himself into becoming a creative individual but he is a long way from being an artist by just producing a well engineered mobile…
Being an artist is first and foremost something that you do not decide but it decides you. Really how many people would choose to spend the best part of their life struggling and poor? Only if you are propelled and obsessed do you first go to college then become a professional in that trade.
I explained that creativity is a mindset that changes the way you live and do anything, anything can be creative. Asking me pricing first as the most important thing in the art world is a sure sign he is not even close to being an artist.
The poor man was shocked but took it in stride. He left knowing there was work to do on himself, not just building well oiled mobiles!