{"id":6194,"date":"2013-03-03T20:37:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T04:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=6194"},"modified":"2015-05-05T14:56:27","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T21:56:27","slug":"you-are-an-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2013\/03\/03\/you-are-an-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"You are an Artist"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s the title of a book we bought used many years ago and have had around since. We took it with us to Oregon. Just the title is reminder of what we often need reminding of: You are an Artist.<\/em>*<\/p>\n

I’m aware that perhaps half of my readers will rise to this title, and the other half won’t relate. But wait.<\/p>\n

Even if you don’t, for reasons cultural, or upbringing, or linguistic, you may want to reconsider. Here’s a great quote I used in the introduction to my book, In the Image of God<\/em>:<\/p>\n

An artist isn’t a different kind of person,<\/strong>
\nbut every person is a different kind of artist.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That’s by Eric Gill, type designer, sculptor, graphic designer and part\u00a0time philosopher a couple generations back. I remember his typeface, Gill Sans<\/em>, one I often used in my years designing Surfer Magazine<\/em>. I wasn’t aware its designer was active in multiple fields. Another Renaissance Man? His great quote indicates how he saw life, and all of its participants.<\/p>\n

ALL of its participants!<\/p>\n

Doing things from an artist’s perspective has to do with approach<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It’s aesthetic, perhaps, but more, it’s unique. It’s a way of looking at, of problem solving, of play. What it comes up with is original, new, and “just right” for the challenge at hand.<\/p>\n

If done very well, it’s genius.<\/p>\n

A more-or-less quote by Vincent Van Gogh (I’ve read all of his letters to his brother Theo but there were thousands) goes like this:<\/p>\n

I’m an artist. By that I mean I’m always exploring, often not getting it, always working toward it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There it is, an artist’s definition of an artist. We’d say, “Van Gogh thinks he’s an artist? Well, duhhh. He goes out every morning and paints another masterpiece by evening.”<\/p>\n

Yes, but he wasn’t an artist because he used paint, he was an artist because of the way he used his mind.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of people using paint who could use an extra surge toward\u00a0becoming\u00a0an artist. And there are mathematicians and plumbers who are very much artists.<\/p>\n

So there you go. Remember Eric Gill: “Every person is a different kind of artist.” And remember Van Gogh: Keep working, keep exploring, try the new thing.<\/p>\n

As you do that, you are an artist.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

_________________
\n* You are an Artist, A Practical Approach to Art,<\/em> by Fred Gettings, Pub. Paul Hamlyn, London, 1965
\nNext: the e-gallery, sharing some of the work produced in Oregon<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of you already knew this, some not so much. But take another look; there’s more to you than you thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6194"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6194"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10715,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6194\/revisions\/10715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}