What makes an artist? Remember your mother praising your school artwork, telling you you could be an artist? However, that was your mother, and what did she know? Your father, too stoic, never said what was in his heart. The education system has a way of killing off the truly sensitive artist early in the process. The evaluations and critiques are often not gentle or encouraging. Often at the turning point, there are societal factors like war, raising a family, personal struggles or other pressures that kill the artist in the child.
Over the last year, I’ve had opportunities to watch several artists, both masters and those in the early stages of development. So, what makes an artist? Talking to a great artist, like talking to a world leader, does not make one a great artist. How about listening, watching, and doing? After watching, studying, and listening to people like Sabah Al-Dhaher, Meredith Earls, Karl Hufbauer, Alexandra Morosco, Michael Naranjo, Helen Palisin, Tracy Powell, and Tom Small (there are many more) certain themes or characteristics begin to emerge. No matter how experienced, each person is different, therefore an individual. Even spiritual development varies between artists. So, what makes an artist, let alone a great artist? Unlike the wonderful world of black, white, and cookie cutter desires, there is no clear path that one should walk or high-end educational institution one must attend.
Sadly though, money does play a major role. Without money, you cannot feed yourself, your family, or buy the tools to support your passion. It is probably the biggest killer of artistic development.
Some are driven by the desire to achieve greatness. Others are driven to find themselves. There are part-time, full-time, and want-to-be artists. To show and sell art, some knowledge of business and marketing is required; beyond just knowing how to sculpt, paint, or mold clay. To simply show and sell art does not make the artist a great artist. There are artists that show and sell art because someone with money supports them (a patron). Some artists show and sell intermittently, but never achieve greatness. There are great artists that never show or sell their work. Some are motivated spiritually, and some are motivated by the physicality of the art; the sensations it invokes.
To show and sell art, the artists must expose themselves publicly. A person seeking a solitary existence may not pursue public acceptance and may not become a popular artist until after death, if at all. There needs to be a drive from deep within to produce one new piece after another. An artist must be disciplined to produce enough pieces to provide satisfactory or desired income. To some, the traditional human figure is the way, while others find abstraction their guiding light. For some stone sculptors, it is finding within the stone that which the imagination dreamed about. For others, it is finding what the stone has to reveal.
There are several approaches to carving stone. The primary method of sculpting stone is to search through stones until the right one is found, and then impose the artist’s creative design. The second, and seldom understood, is to search the soul of the stone. Everything has a soul, the level or depth depends on who, what, when, and where. Some artists feel a need to express society’s troubles. Others enjoy the freedom, joy, and imagination associated with expressing one’s creative thoughts. And, some happen into it purely by chance.
Bottom-line, up front, a successful artist is not easy to identify, nor are the characteristics. Sure, there are the flashy, successful artists we see everywhere. But isn’t the artist that produces only for the pure enjoyment of creating, an artist? Who really cares or counts when it comes to living your life? No one but the artist with the spirit to create, that which is within, counts and cares. Society imposes myths and false truths about success to justify self-importance. You, the artist, must reach deep within yourself to find who you are. You, the artist, must reach deep within yourself to find out what you are. Finally, you, the artist, must determine when you become an artist.
