I was talking to someone the other day who said she was a Social Artist. I didn’t know what she meant. I assumed an artist who makes social statements and left it at that.
What she meant was that there was no point in being a practicing artist because there are so many, too many artists. There are artists everywhere. I figured she was a Community Artist, one who teaches and gets involved with community projects. This got me thinking because I too have felt this in my more negative moments. When one is involved in the arts, one’s networks, contacts, interactions are all art or craft based, and it can feel like there is an artist under every bush and what’s the point of being yet another one? It has all been said and done a thousand times. Why should anyone want to see my take on things?
Well, millions of poems have been written and there are still people writing new ones. There is loads of music in the world, but there are still composers creating new pieces. There are trillions of artists, but there are still people being born with the drive to continue the culture, the interpretation and the legacy of the past. We re-invent from the past and re-interpret the present, pointing to a different and unknown future. It is this brilliance that makes us human. It is this creativity and inventiveness that marks us out from the rest of the animal kingdom. We have the means to infinite creativity. It is this newness or renewal that perpetuates our cultural expansiveness.
Sometimes we need to look a little more inward at our drive and desires rather than trying to see our place as another unnecessary cog in the creative wheel because we cannot assess our own contribution. We cannot see how we affect the world around us and we will never know. So looking inward to the conviction and the drive is essential. We know what we need to do as artists and it takes a lifetime to achieve it. So be an artist. Give airing to that undying motivation and bee creative. Make things. Invent things. Compose things.
What she meant was that there was no point in being a practicing artist because there are so many, too many artists. There are artists everywhere. I figured she was a Community Artist, one who teaches and gets involved with community projects. This got me thinking because I too have felt this in my more negative moments. When one is involved in the arts, one’s networks, contacts, interactions are all art or craft based, and it can feel like there is an artist under every bush and what’s the point of being yet another one? It has all been said and done a thousand times. Why should anyone want to see my take on things?
Well, millions of poems have been written and there are still people writing new ones. There is loads of music in the world, but there are still composers creating new pieces. There are trillions of artists, but there are still people being born with the drive to continue the culture, the interpretation and the legacy of the past. We re-invent from the past and re-interpret the present, pointing to a different and unknown future. It is this brilliance that makes us human. It is this creativity and inventiveness that marks us out from the rest of the animal kingdom. We have the means to infinite creativity. It is this newness or renewal that perpetuates our cultural expansiveness.
Sometimes we need to look a little more inward at our drive and desires rather than trying to see our place as another unnecessary cog in the creative wheel because we cannot assess our own contribution. We cannot see how we affect the world around us and we will never know. So looking inward to the conviction and the drive is essential. We know what we need to do as artists and it takes a lifetime to achieve it. So be an artist. Give airing to that undying motivation and bee creative. Make things. Invent things. Compose things.
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