It was only a year or two ago, when I realized that I am an “artist”.
At a very young age I painted. My Father and Uncle were both painters. So as any child would, I simply took for granted that painting and drawing were normal endeavors.
At 12 I had learned Photography and studied Philosophy. It was what was going on around me, and being inquisitive, I learned.
So does a bird realize it is a bird? Of course, flying would not be so special to him. But to someone without wings, oh to soar!
I had a request this week for a look at a year’s worth of work. I put together an edit cull of an approximate 1 year cross section of subjects. This required me, for the sake of brevity, to eliminate motion and all work shot, but not through, final post production, from being placed into my edit list.
Keep in mind, that this modus eliminated twenty or so projects. (I shoot a large number of subjects in a year.)
When the cull was complete, the Art aspect of the year’s work flow really struck me.
I had no conscious thought while I was working, that anything about what I was shooting was quite so special. Many years ago, a commercial photography colleague told me that I would have to choose between being a businessman, or an artist, in my imaging career.
Today, I am not so sure one has much of a choice about what to be. As many children of the fifties learned while watching the cartoon Popeye growing up, when he would say nearly every episode: “I am what I am.” Sometimes it is best for efficiency and happiness’ sake, to embrace that sooner, rather than later.
Seth Godin has this to say about Art. He nails it (as usual).
Excerpted from Seth’s A-Z blogpost on Aug 1, 2010: A is for Artist: An artist is someone who brings humanity to a problem, who changes someone else for the better, who does work that can’t be written down in a manual. Art is not about oil painting, it’s about bringing creativity and insight to work, instead of choosing to be a compliant cog. (from Linchpin).
Time to fly.
