Random Thoughts

I was recently discussing the idea of Art with a few different people, all different conversations. Something that came up is the question, am I personally an artist.  My argument is, well no, but why?  Is art a distinctive category outside of craft?  I am certainly more of a craftsman than an “artist”. Or is the artisan/craftsman creating a subtype of art much the way folk art is a subtype of art that is different from “fine art”.  Maybe, I think an argument can be made that way. Artisans create something useful in a practical sense, folk art follows a tradition keeping the old ways alive, it is restrictive in the way traditional poetry is. And fine art tends to push towards novelty, eschewing traditional forms and approaches.

But perhaps Art, as a whole, should be viewed as evoking an emotional response. In this way Art functions in a way literature has be viewed. The “reader response” view in biblical studies has been applied to literature in general. The meaning is not in the written word, and in fact cannot be viewed as anything coherent without the reading.  Meaning comes forth when the reader reads the words, the interplay between the written words and the readers understanding brings for the meaning. So to it would seem that any Art does not exist without the observer, best viewed as an observer-participant, viewing by object.  Meaning comes forth during this interplay.  Art, therefore, becomes subjective.  It can challenge the observer-participant and can be evocative of very negative emotions as well as positive ones.  But it is this emotional meaning that comes forth between the observer-participant and the Art object (written words, music, painting, sculpture or whatever) that makes it Art.  Therefore Art, at its core, is an experience. 

So am I an artist?  I guess I cannot answer that question given what I have proposed, as only others can determine if my work qualifies in this manner.  In this way any “artists” opinion that they have created Art is narcissistic and delusional in nature without feedback from the community.

I have begun to believe that all Art, explores life and death and interplay between the two.  It is there that meaning and emotional resonance comes from.  Clearly this is my existential and psychodynamic roots showing. Ernest Becker would agree.  Pottery, or if you want to follow the verbage of the “artists” it is ceramic art, demonstrates this at a solid metaphoric level.  I will say, as an aside, that this insistence on the change of wording is an attempt to push craftsmanship of functional pottery out in order to capture a sense of “art”.  But looking at my premise, this is a false dichotomy.   

Clay is dirt.  But a specific dirt.  It is not formed by the heat of the earth or pressure but rather is part of a class of rocks called sedimentary.  This class is “dead” rocks, destroyed overtime and eroded into smaller and smaller pieces and interacting with the water.  Overtime creating layers and layers of different types of rock which break down to soil or dirt, one of which is clay.  So clay itself is the remains of death in the natural creation and beyond “dead rocks” it has a mix of organic matter, dead plants and animals.

Clay merged with water and fire creates pottery, or a brick or lump.  It this the clay must die to itself to be transformed into new life, mixed with a traditional representation of life, the water. But to be more than a lump or brick the potter’s essence or soul enters into the creation.  Like all art, the artist is inseparable from the art.  Art is a giving of self over into a new creation. So Dirt + Water + Fire + Soul = pottery. Something new, that can perform life giving functions of food and storage or for tending to the soul through ritual.  Art comes forth when the artist can die of themselves, take the chance the risk to put something out there.  At its best a new thing is created, but as happens sometimes it is a still birth.

Am I an artist?  Maybe.  I put myself forth in an act of creation.  Is it art?  I cannot know until the community responds or does not respond to my work as something of creation.