To be an artist has nothing to do with making art only ”“ it has to do with how you see the world.
You’re not a poet just because you can write a poem but rather, because you see the world in poetry.
You’re able to see and express the beauty and possibility of the world and then capture that in inspiring words. You see the world like a poet does.
You’re not an artist just because culture deems you so. Being an artist is about seeing the world unlike how most of culture sees it. That requires taking risks in going against the masses and being willing to stand for something that might be ahead of its time or be on the fringes because it’s not yet been “accepted” by the masses. Most great things aren’t accepted by culture. That’s the irony of it all.
If you think about a great artist like Vincent Van Gogh ”“ he wasn’t even considered artistic until after he died. He wasn’t traditional by any sense of the word. He wasn’t creating the kind of art, that at the time, people felt comfortable viewing. He pushed the envelope in capturing the world in ways painted on canvas that hadn’t been depicted before. He was bold. Different. He thought like an artist because he was one.
A lot of artists are outliers because they view the world in a way that isn’t common or base. Popular or obvious. They don’t see things the way everyone else tells them to see it. That takes innovation, courage, inspiration and commitment. And balls.
It’s hard nowadays to allow ourselves to be expressed at that level because we’re inundated by social media telling us how to think, feel, look, dress, be popular, liked or influential. The more we go to our phones and see examples of everyone trying to be like everyone else, we start to doubt our own ability to think differently. To create with wonder and uniqueness. Without realizing it, we get sucked into the wormhole of common-ness and sometimes cruelty, pettiness, superficiality and high-school- ness.
Steer clear of the stuff that makes you doubt and question your own weirdness. Let yourself elevate to those thoughts of why you wanted to create things in the first place. Let that artistry be a possibility for you. It is born in each of us but to really be living it means standing by the integrity of sharing your vision of the world with many people who won’t see it that way. They won’t simply because they can’t.
Taraji P Henson said in an interview recently that if she had listened to all the people who constantly told her it was impossible for her to pursue an acting career at the age of 25 (with a baby no less!) and move to California. . . she would “never have lived.”
That’s artistry. Not just because Ms. Henson “made it”. It’s wonderful she’s doing powerful film-work and TV. But she’s an artist because she was also brave enough to not listen to all the people telling her “No” and she chose to see the possibilities of her world in a different way.
So don’t let this business get you down. Think like an artist! See the world through beauty and compassion and love and simplicity.
To do that is art.