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Show mediocrity within Art as Everything, and there is a general dismissal of intelligence when the credentials required to be considered an Artist are lacking or inconsistent at best. Television psychic, Miss Cleo, made believers of people for years, but if you call yourself an Artist, you will be greeted with a polite nod and a story about a niece or nephew who loves to draw. Don't forget the age old question, "But what do you really do?" because Artist is considered a hobby, something cutesy that we do on the side, or a way to describe our personality. Artist is hardly ever defined through a career. Even graphic design and illustration fall outside of this. All other professional creatives, the ones that fall under Artist- the working creatives, the Common Creatives, might as well be, well, Sandwich Artists. So, why, oh, why did I end up in graduate school? Was I looking for a place to allow my narcissism to blossom? Unlikely, as I believe my general tone towards Art and Artists reflect my own buy-in into the assertion that they both lack perceived societal importance other than to foster the self-esteem of the youth of America, a concept that is quickly losing the popular vote. I didn't end up in graduate school, I chose graduate school because, deny as I might, no matter where, when, or what, Art… well, it is a part of me. It runs through me like blood. ` I cannot intuit Art, and to make is difficult for me, but it is how I process the world around me. Art is a tactile experience in observation. As a person who works two-dimensionally, it transcribes the three-dimensional world around me. This transcription, this translation, was and is a part of how I make the world a more understandable place. For me. I resist saying that what I make is Art, or that I am an Artist. In fact, I have spent the better part of these two years as a graduate student running away from Annette Mehr, the Artist, as far and as fast as I could. If I called myself an Artist, I would be a remarkable hypocrite. You see, my impassioned argument that the Artist does not require suffering or some sort of trauma for (or to spur on) their Art as authentication, despite acknowledging that suffering can motivate or inspire work, is in part because I am running away from my own. 19 |
