By what criteria do we determine who is an artist? We learn from art history that in the days of apprenticeships paired to craftsmen, an artist was one who spent years learning the craft from a master, and this craft was solidly defined. It was a discipline built upon generations of artists experimenting, developing, and unlocking the secrets of effective techniques to produce astounding and magnificent works of art. These days, thanks to our consumer society, free enterprise, and the leisure time our inventions have provided for us, anyone can pick up a paint brush and try their hand at producing a work of art.
So, by what criteria do we determine who is an artist? Every person born has artistic tendencies. We all have a “left side” to our brains. Everyone possesses some level of artistic discernment. Certainly we have professional artists who have made a commercial success from their art. And yes, there are countless serious amateurs producing a prodigious amount of high quality art daily. The full spectrum of who can be called an artist even includes those who show an aptitude or propensity towards art, whether they create art regularly or rarely.
But are you an artist? When asking yourself this question, try juxtaposing an artist with a musician. By musician, I mean someone who is accomplished at playing a musical instrument. This definition presents the first criteria of determining if you are an artist: technical ability. Can you say that your level of applying a medium to a two dimensional surface, or capturing an image with photography, or sculpting or wood carving or firing clay rises to the level of someone who can play a musical instrument well? Do you tediously produce a melody or does it flow naturally? Do you nimbly skip across the frets or the keyboard or are you hesitant, uncertain and imprecise?
Take a look at your latest creation, and think of what it would sound like if it were a musical piece. Is it clunky, discordant, or banal? Or is it such a sweet and sad melody that it sends you into a reverie? Or is it a fanfare, or a sonata? Does the melody stay with you, do you feel the urge to return to it again and again as you would a popular song? This is the second criteria: the appeal of your creation.
There are all kinds of musicians, as with artists. Lets look at improvisation. Improvisation defines the jazz musician. A jazz musician can take a musical theme and expound upon it, take it apart, revise it, put it back together and hand it off to the next musician, unscripted, invented at the moment of playing, improvising. Can you do that with your art? This would be the equivalent of the plein air artist. Can you, on the spot, create a loose yet effective quality piece of art on the fly, improvising, unplanned? Improvisation is the third criteria.
Not every musician is an improvising jazz artist. There are the extremely accomplished and precise virtuosos, the symphony orchestra members, the classic flamenco guitarists, the concert pianists, the first violinists, the renowned classical musicians of the world. They produce, consistently, music of such a high quality that few can match it. They have conquered the most difficult aspects of mastering their instruments. Can you say that of your mastery of any given medium? Would your level of expertise of a certain medium qualify you as a member of the symphony orchestra or distinguish you as a solo creator? Mastery of the medium is the fourth criteria.
So, you are a serious artist, work diligently at your art, and are your own worst critic. You maintain a clear eyed discernment of your level of ability. And you know that you’ve got something. It’s what keeps you at it. But are you destined to be a Salieri to someone else’s Mozart level of accomplishments? Best to keep at it and try harder. That’s what musicians do!
