Who Says You're An Artist??

The brushes, pens and pencils, computers, cameras, foundations etc are just examples of some tools that we use to enhance our creative selves. While these tools help us in our journey they are simply not enough. They can tell you when there is a technical error, or refer you to the charts that tell you what colors to mix, or how to follow the rules to creating in a software but these things are not the artists!!

      It takes a special mind, a creative mind, to conceive the images and numbers that we tend to see in our minds. Not saying that everyone can't pick up makeup and start painting, or pick up a camera and start shooting, because they can. The difference is the eye of the individual. Artists can look at a blank canvas (or situation) and not see the blank but see the colors, angles, shadows, highlights, contours and so on and so forth. When these things are created in the minds of the artists they will do anything to achieve them. There are often times where near perfection is not enough for an artist. Once they hit near perfection the bar raises automatically in efforts to keep up with the times, styles and techniques. Artists often lose sleep over work. "Todays work is good but tomorrows work will be great" is the typical thought of an artist.

      Some people are classically trained in whatever realm of art they're in, others are self taught, and neither of them are wrong. Some people have the talent buried somewhere deep inside themselves and need a teacher, mentor or even a motivator to pull it out and force them to use it. Some are able to identify the love they have for art and attack it head on reading books and investing the time in the trial and error process. There are times where people can have a God given talent in a genre of art and not do anything with it. Its not only the skill you possess that makes you and artist, its the time and effort you put into it. If you are going to sing, you must sing daily, if you are going to draw, you must draw daily. Study what your industry is doing and build upon, improve upon and create anew...

     Tools are just that, tools. None of them are able to make the decisions of a true artist. Learn to trust your mind, your eyes and your vision. Feel the work as it happens and trust every gut instinct you have. Let no one deter your dreams or tear you down. Seek comfort in the fact that you an artist and unlike "normal" people, you are a visionary. People look at what you do and applaud you because in your special mind you created that special piece!!