The Myth of the Real Artist
The real artist must make art. In fact it goes beyond the positive, beyond need to make. It encompasses even the neutral. The real artist can’t not draw, write, or make music. The implication is that the real artist will always find a way. A profound and sometimes inexplicable self-confidence about the necessity of the art is a hallmark of the real artist.
The artist who procrastinates, stays in bed all day, engages in hobbies, or spends time with friends instead of just doing the art obviously doesn’t love it enough. It is possible to be a lazy dabbler; a real artist is too driven for laziness.
The real artist is willing to work at perfecting a craft for years and years before attempting to release art to the world. The real artist knows that such patience is the key to making truly great art. The world is already glutted with mediocre and bad art and media, and the real artist refuses to contribute to this problem.
The real artist neither needs nor has time for the often pretentious and self-congratulatory critical apparatus that tends to surround artwork. The real artist focuses on being an artist, not a critic or a scholar.
The real artist is fraught, or even paralyzed, by the difficulty of making art. The real artist is filled with terror when faced with the blank page, the canvas, or the silence. Profound self-doubt is the hallmark of the real artist. Constantly trying to improve, the real artist nonetheless never reaches a state of satisfaction.
The real artist is willing to work incredibly hard to gain recognition or to find a way to make a living by being an artist. Recognition and money, however, are never part of the real artist’s motivation - they are simply a means to continue making the art.
The real artist cares nothing for what other people think - the real artist is an iconoclast. The real artist probably dresses in weird or messy clothes, or forgets to shower, or behaves a little strangely in public. This is because the real artist is too concerned with the needs of the art to pay much attention to anything else.
The real artist is a profoundly disciplined worker. The real artist works on art for at least several hours almost every single day. The real artist will spend this time on art even in addition to a full-time job; claiming to be too physically, intellectually, or emotionally exhausted from work just means that the art wasn’t important or urgent enough be invigorating.
The real artist knows the importance of networking, and attends openings, readings, and concerts. The real artist is part of the “scene,” but the real artist is actually completely above the “scene,” because caring too much what other people think belies desperation, and besides, the real artist is totally fulfilled by the art itself. Inside though, the real artist is desperate for approval, and is only pretending not to care.
If an artist who is a woman has children and then slows or stops her output of work, she was probably never a real artist anyway, or at least the children have emptied her of her art. In most circumstances, a woman cannot be both a real artist and a good mother - she is either an irresponsible eccentric, ignoring her screaming children in a dirty house as she works, or she is a “mommy-artist,” creating shallow paeans to the beauty (and occasional charming trials) of mothering. A women who has either the privilege of wealth or an inordinately supportive family structure, however, is capable of being both a good mother and a real artist.
The real artist, not caring what anyone thinks, may make art that does not have a big intellectual or aesthetic project. The real artist loves the process of creation and the beauty of the product, which may result in pretty, popular, charming, and/or marketable art. As long as the art comes from internal drive rather than as a calculated reaction to cultural and market forces, the person is a real artist.
A real artist is anyone who creates real art. Real art is what a real artist creates. Because art negotiates the borderlands between fact and fiction, reality in the context of the artist is entirely a matter of semantics.
The real artist is always right on the edge of sanity. The real artist lives in a different world than everyone else - more intense, more brilliant. Often profoundly depressed or anxious, the real artist would be blunted without feeling the depth of these emotions. For long periods of time, the real artist might be too depressed to create any art. These periods are, however, absolutely essential for the real artist, providing an emotional depth that the subsequent art would otherwise lack.
If an artist who is a man has children, the failure to structure his life such that his family does not interfere with artwork demonstrates a clear lack of dedication. A man who is a real artist is probably single; if he were forced by the economic requirements of family to be either a breadwinner or a house husband it would fatally interfere with his art. A real artist must be free; a family is the antithesis, the absolute opposite of freedom for the real artist.
Some things that should definitely (not) be included in the category of real art: interior design, tweets, pop music, video games, instagram photos, horror movies, fashion design, comics, fan fiction, graphic design, young adult fantasy novels.
The real artist is willing to risk rejection to begin to make a career in art. The real artist may feel uncertain about a piece of art, but recognizes that this uncertainty is a part of making art, and that this feeling will probably remain forever, so it’s better to call the art “good enough” and begin trying to disseminate it rather than futilely trying to perfect it. The real artist doesn’t wait to create a masterpiece before looking for an audience, but instead knows that without at least the beginnings of an audience the creation of the masterpiece is less likely.
In this day and age, the real artist does not require long years of practice to master a craft. The traditions within craft have been pushed to their limits anyway, so mastering them would be regressive and unnecessary. The real artist focuses on conveying a point, which does not always require impeccable skill with a traditional artistic medium.
The real artist is highly historically and critically aware. Researching contexts and philosophies relevant to the art is an essential aspect of the real artist’s work, as well as maintaining a generally high level of intellectual education and cultural awareness. The real artist knows that art created in a vacuum is often closed-minded, redundant, or overly self-indulgent.
The real artist, understanding that art is part of the delicate human ecology encompassing birth, death, love, and loss, prioritizes close human relationships. The real artist with children will spend time teaching and playing with them, and will gain valuable insights from this time. A family can easily succeed with two real artists; what they might lack in financial security they will regain in fulfillment.
The real artist may try to work every day, but is actually at the mercy of the muse. The real artist carefully cultivates craft, but requires a bolt of inspiration to put that craft to good use. If overly physically fatigued, worried about money, emotionally exhausted, depressed, or distracted, the real artist finds it difficult or impossible to create art.
Real art is beautiful, and therefore the real artist only creates beautiful art. The definition of beauty is another matter.
janainaart
turnnoffyourmind
titsay
andulkaphoto
vaporwave
2087
