What is an Artist? Part II

Basically, being an artist is like being an athlete. One is not merely an athlete. If one is a professional athlete, then one is practising some discipline or another. I might be a speed-skater or a javelin-thrower, or else a professional football player or whatnot. I am veritably an athlete, but more particularly, I am a practitioner of a given discipline within the various athletic disciplines or sports.

The same goes with being an artist. I am an artist practising this discipline. In my case, I specialize in the visual arts, in painting, as well as in musical composition and sound design, as well as in writing. I write fiction and non-fiction, I am an experienced poet, these are my disciplines. It is in this sense that one is never merely an artist. One is an artist, surely, but one practises this or that discipline.

One must specialize, and one can almost never be an expert in all disciplines. Those individuals are few and far between who can specialize in more than 3 or 4 artistic disciplines, just as it is in sports amongst professional athletes. Take the Olympics for example. Those individuals are few and far between who specialize in more than 3 or 4 separate disciplines.

It is the same with the arts. One tends to specialize in at most 1 or 2 separate disciplines. I happen to specialize in Images, in Sounds, and in Words, in Text. That technically makes me an interdisciplinary artist, and that in and of itself comes with a great deal of baggage. It is not easy, and of such interdisciplinary artists, very few are great at what they do. It just comes with the territory and terrain of being an interdisciplinary artist. It is really hard and difficult to be great at more than one discipline, more than one field of expertise.

I do not, cannot pretend that I have ever achieved Greatness in my separate disciplines. All I can really attest to is that I have been constant, have persevered in my various disciplines. If I ever achieve Greatness, it will never be for me to judge, to decide. If I have ever achieved Greatness in what I do, I shall let the audience decide. They shall be my judge and jury and executioner. All I can do is wake up every morning and continue working on my stuff.

I swear, though, I am not an Artiste. I am an ordinary, everyday, workaday individual working on his stuff. I happen to make paintings and musical compositions, sound designs, but that doesn't make me special. I don't see my job as any different than the work a plumber does. I wake up every morning and do my thing, work on my stuff. My career involves practising this and that discipline, these specific professions. I do not think I am special. I do not consider myself to be an Artiste. I am just an everyday, average guy, doing his daily work, earning his daily bread.

This is my position with regard to the Arts, specifically the Liberal Arts, and for the time being, I will never change my position. I will however have much more to say about this, so as always, please stay tuned. :)
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