Dear Young Artist
11 Sep 2003Dear Young Artist,
The question WHAT IS ART? is one particularly close to my heart, and your concerns are well thought out, as well as, I dare say, fairly common. As a painter of portraits I do understand your dilemma; at the end of the long process of creation, I often ask myself, IS THIS ART? The conclusion at which I arrive is never the same as the last time I pondered the matter, and furthermore, these answers are fixed well within the ambiguous spectrum of MAYBE.
I examine my materials: PAINT AND SURFACE. Not exclusively the tools of an artist, but equally designated as such . . . Far is it to jump from plain paint to art, but far also is it to progress from possessing nothing to consciously obtaining the lithe brushes of a fine painter. Intent, I would say, is half — the far easier half — of the battle. For me, buying paint is a ritual in itself, requiring driving to a special store in order to buy only one specific item. This process is one step in the series of thousands, each stroke brushed and color mixed, each moment spent pondering a real likeness and internally translating it into acrylic.
Which brings me to the ultimate point: THE COMMITMENT TO A WORK IS THE TRUE SIGN OF ART. If you have made a piece with no intentions outside of yourself, if you have painstakingly plotted and executed your project with only your own SATISFACTION in mind, then your creation is, to you, art. It is personal and emotional and riveting and disappointing, and be damned anyone who disapproves or even VIEWS it — it is YOURS, and it is ART.
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