Why Be an Artist?

"Why" is probably one of the hardest questions for people to answer. Why do we do whatever we do? Why did we become what we are? Sometimes--many times--things seem to have happened in our lives without our own will being involved at all. Things "just happen" to many of us. Not long ago the question in the title of this post was asked of me, and in all honesty I was stumped for a quick or simple answer. The first reply that came to mind was that I didn't know, but then came another: "it's complicated;" and at last, "I've got to think it over."

Some people will say they took a particular path in life because it was imperative to them, because they were driven to the pursuit. A struggling writer I once knew said she wrote things because she simply "couldn't not write," and then gave a rather piteous sigh--she was driven, she said. For some of us, though, we wander paths that diverge sometimes and cross sometimes as settings and relationships change. We explore different lives and pursuits and we find ourselves in different places than we expected. It's not that will isn't involved in our trailblazing; it is. Some artists do seem to have been born to it--Michelangelo, Picasso and others come to mind--but the majority of artists have developed and expanded whatever innate ability

van Gogh "Sorrow," 1882

they received and then perfected their craft and art. Here I think of people like van Gogh, probably Renoir and many others who by diligent and nearly ceaseless effort became transcendent artists. Van Gogh arguably had very little talent but his work became almost synonymous with wild emotion, even his drawings, like "Sorrow."

Pierre Auguste Renoir, "After the Bath," 1910

Renoir began as a painter of china and porcelain (he was born in Limoges) but switched to fine art and eventually became the renowned Impressionist that is remembered. But even as he worked ceaselessly to improve, some of his peers thought he had little talent. As was the case with van Gogh, it was enormous effort and diligence that won the day for him. After reaching fame and fortune, he continued work as an artist until his death although his later works seem less accomplished than his middle years. Nonetheless, Renoir persisted until making art was part of him, inseparable from the rest of life.

So why be an artist? There are probably a lot of answers. Here are some possible ones, none particularly good.
1. The life of an artist is great, and it's easy.
    Well, it's great not to punch a time clock, keep some else's hours, do work one doesn't enjoy, and all that. But the life of an artist is without fail one of continual and unceasing work, whether it's production of art or promoting it or marketing it. Full time artists I know work almost all the time.  Taking it easy all the time simply isn't the artists' life.
2. You can make a lot of money as an artist.
    Perhaps. Certainly some very accomplished and well-known artists of various kinds make astonishing amounts. On the other hand, there are literally millions who call themselves artists and most make nothing at all. Getting into "art" to become rich is a fool's errand.
3. Everyone tells me I can already do it, so why not?
   You may have a built-in ability that will allow you to soar to the heavens with your music or words or images. But I doubt it. Mostly artists are made, not born. Even those with a high level of talent work hard to improve. Most artists learn the skills needed to play the bassoon or mix oil paint long before they produce anything of worth. Artists must learn, even those with startling ability.
4. Making art is fun.
   It can be fun to make art, but getting there isn't always fun. Like any learned skill (see above) making art of any kind requires learning the craft. Making art requires discipline and that can often seem more like drudgery--practicing scales on the piano, for instance. In physical training they say, "no pain no gain," and whether it's true for art or not, it often feels so. It's the craft that makes the art. Yes, people like Jeff Koons pay others to execute their concepts (hence "conceptual artist") but that's rare.
5. I want to be famous.
   Be careful what you wish for. Most who become famous wish it were otherwise. Artists become famous about as frequently as they become rich. That is to say almost never. And fame is not only fleeting but commonly a millstone on one's neck. If you'd like to be famous, well...good luck!

So why am I an artist? The short answer is because that's a big part of who I am. In looking back over a lifetime, considering the activities and learning that excited me, it's clear that making images has always been important. Being an artist is part of my self, ingrained in the being that is me. When I look at the world I commonly see things differently. Difference in perceptions is a significant piece of being an artist, though not the only important one. Concentrating on the patterns of bark on a sycamore or how light passes through glass and water are time spent immersed in the physical world, almost a stepping outside the self. Art doesn't exclude the rest of life, of course. There are other parts of me that have little to do directly with art, yet those pursuits also require attention, precise vision and logical thought, so perhaps more fundamental parts of one's makeup contribute to development of artistic ability.

Perspective drawing, 1956

My first recollection of making something artistic was an art contest sponsored by a local supermarket. I won an electric train, long since gone, as are the works that won it. But by age ten I was beginning to understand one-point perspective. Where I learned about perspective at that age has been lost in the mist of memory, but I do remember taking a perspective drawing to my art teacher, and to my surprise another such drawing recently surfaced, saved no doubt by my mother. It dates from 1956. Although I had no idea how to integrate a tractor and trailer into the image it's clear I'd gotten the idea of a vanishing point.

So for me as it is for some, being an artist isn't something that I became. Instead it is something that was always part of the larger me, the talent or ability or tendency or whatever was expanded and grew with the years of study and interest. Being a professional artist is an act of will; being an artist at all is most likely innate.