What makes an artist?

Well, perhaps what we should really be inquiring about is what drives people to desire to, to feel the innate need to create. What an artist is, is humanity.

The truth in art is not met without opposition, but what art, in all of its manifestations leads us to conclude, is that it is representative of humans and all that precedes them. This means that art highlights everything that accompanies human beings, be it our aspirations, personalities, ideas, physical state, or even the entire spectrum of human emotion. The plethora of items associated with how we as people function or operate is what inspires and shapes all of what we create.

And if anything can be created, it is art.

As a writer, a violinist, and an enthusiast of all things fine art and travel/culture related, I have been witness time and time again to unraveling all of the mysterious loopholes and clues in thought presented by every type of art. There is a reason your grade school teachers always asked you on visits to art museums what the art made you feel.

When I was a small child, I was always completely wrapped up, enthralled and entangled in my desire to uncover the rich historical, cultural, and emotional implications of the arts.

I was always traveling through literature in an effort to delve into and explore worlds beyond anything I could fathom on a given day in this very real one. When life got to be too much, I got lost in the music, a book, or working on a painting, and never thought any of these things could be any better.

You heard me acknowledge once before that there is an artist within each of us, because we all have a hunger for hands-on work, creating something fresh significant and individual to us.

This doesn’t mean everyone is a good artist, however, I do think that good art can come from each of us because I can’t possibly imagine that with the abundance of varieties that creation upholds, there is one person who can’t ignite a spark with one of them. There is also a notable difference between what is of value to you versus what you simply possess a natural talent for.

It’s definitely likely that a hefty number love the thing they are not so great at simply because it inspires them or for any other purpose and there are those who are great at things pertaining to art that might not necessarily resonate with them in any way.

Most infuriating is the need that some feel to criticize art because they cannot resonate with the form, so they deem it “bad” art, or they dislike the artist so they refuse to like it, or they’ve done no research to provide any insight as to what its purpose or message is. Art is anything that is created by humanity (well, the majority of things), art is who we are and we should accept it regardless of anything. Who is any one of us to say that a work is bad or not worth attention or acknowledgement?