For most of my life, both in adolescence and as an adult, I tended to differentiate between the idea of myself as a writer versus an artist. While many have argued that writing is art, (and it is) I’ve always had a difficult time thinking of myself as an artist™. Intentional or not I’ve often conflated the concept of artist™ with someone who was good at painting or drawing, someone who had the rather specific technical skills of being able to create something that tells a story. Something that conveys a message through a visual medium. That is after all, an aspect of what art is.
As I’ve gotten older and I’ve started playing around in different mediums, from acrylic pour artwork to abstract oil pastel drawings, I find that I’m becoming more comfortable refering to myself as an artist.
The reality that I often don’t give myself very much credit for is that art is more than just paintings or drawings that are technically briliant. It’s more than just life drawings or Rennaissance paintings. Art is writing. Art is abstract oil pastel creations, it’s photography, and acrylic pour paintings.
Art is something that you make. It’s something that you do. It’s an active thing that you create. It’s concious. A choice, a need, and an all consuming desire. Painting and oil pastel creations are almost as much of a need as writing is for me.
Making art is a totally different experience I’ll admit.
Part of what I love about it is that it’s so much different from writing. I’m a firm believer that you should have an assortment of hobbies outside of the ones that you usually engage in on a regular basis. Whether it’s knitting, DIY, acrylic pour, abstract oil pastels, night photography that feels eerie, or graphic design, I like to have a plethora of different artistic endeavors available to me at any time. All created by me, with my own unique artistic vision, no genAI involved.
But that begs the question. What is art anyway? And for that matter, who is an artist? How does one define art?
According to the New Oxford American Dictionary Art is:
the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power
This specificity of human creative skill and imagination is I think, particularly important, especially as more and more debates around generative AI and whether or not it can be classified as ‘art’ ramp up. Personally as someone who has dedicated my entire life to human creative skill and imagination, I am very much in agreement with the Dictionary on this one. In fact, a big section of my Thought Provoking Thursdays series (coming 9/4) is going to be about how to get started as a Writer without the use of AI (since that seems to be something that people are having difficulties with). I want to show just how much it can be done, all on your own, without AI, so long as you’re willing to put in the time and effort.
Art is worthwhile. And it does have meaning, why else would tech bros spend so much time and effort trying to convince us all that creative endeavors were worthless in the name of capitalism for the last thirty odd years (if not more) only to suddenly turn around and act as though there is a worth now that they can use a computer program to attempt to replicate (but really reguritate) writers and artists who have dedicated their entire lives to the craft?
What you have to keep in mind is the reality that no matter how many AI scams there are that want to convince you that if you just use the platform you can make thousands of dollars, as with every other dropshipping scam there is and has been the cold, harsh reality is that if everyone is doing it, there is no market for it. AI is not a gold mine, it’s a gold rush, and the like every gold rush before it the only people making money on it are those that are selling shovels.
