Artists Are "Different"?
 

I've been pondering the cultural image that has been passed down through the centuries, that "artists are a bit peculiar"---moody, temperamental, mentally unbalanced, fragile, "not of this world", etc.

Did you ever buy into any of this? Sheepishly, guiltily, I admit that I have been moody (read, "prone to bouts of clinical depression"), and at times, mentally fragile since earliest childhood. Whether I also fit the category of artist may still yet be determined. What actually is an "artist" anyway?

One thing I do know is that an artist cannot afford to be a prima-donna. You cannot afford to "wait for the muse" and only paint when "inspired". You must work even when you're in the crappiest of moods, must take care of the business end of things, even though it's an uncomfortably "left-brained" activity requiring an alarming amount of time.

Discipline, perseverance, faith---all qualities with which to wrestle daily. And I've said nothing of the ego required to hang out a shingle, proclaiming oneself, "Artist" (such an amorphous term!). Ok, I'm being somewhat confessional here: Every day, I must tell myself a quote by Peggy Baumgaertner, "Fake it until you make it". Often, I feel like the biggest faker around!

But I'm the only one around here who will admit to such thoughts, right...:D ?

You're an artist as soon as you decide to call yourself one.

I often do demos at schools and some of the little kids come up and watch with awe. They say to me, "Are you a REAL artist?" I respond, "Yes. Are you, too?"

When they inevitably say, "No", I ask if they have ever made a drawing or a painting. Of course they respond, "Well, yes..." and I tell them, "Then you're an artist, too!" They go away with such pride, and I like to think, new ideas of possibilities for their future.

Michele,

The accepted definition of "Artist" seems to change daily and vary from person to person. On one end of the continuum are the "true artists" (those whom most people would define as such---DaVinci, Bouguereau, Richard Lack, William Whitaker, for instance) and there are the "legends in their own minds" (and apparently in the minds of far too many others--Hockney, springs immediately to mind :bewildere ) at the other.

Somewhere in the vast intervening space are the hordes of us attempting to make art on a daily basis, who've identified the benchmark for excellence and sometimes dispair that we might never reach it. Of course, few of us will ever be DaVinci's.

Are you an artist because some gallery in SoHo is willing to hang your work, because you turned a profit in three out of the last five income- taxable years, because you have won major contest prizes for your art?

It's funny. I have an eight year old neice who I believe to be an artist with all my heart. She has an sense of design uncanny for one so young, her draftmanship is also quite advanced, and there doesn't appear to be much else that excites her in the way that making art does. I have told her parents on many occasions that Nicole is a "true artist". I base that opinion on the belief that she has real artistic sensibilities, along with the passion to make beautiful images with paint and paper. So why is this definition not acceptable when it comes to myself?

Michele, your definition is certainly a healthy one. Whatever definition will allow one to stop fretting and keep working is probably best.

I'd still love to hear your opinion on my first observation: Are Artists (as a whole) "different"?

Temperament?
 

Maybe. But I've found other occupations to be more consistent, like: librarians with no sense of humour, auto parts salepeople that act all-knowing, coaches that are indelicate and loud, fabric salespeople that are dull...

The artists I know that actually call painting their job are reliable professionals. The Van Gogh and Picasso types exist mostly in the movies and coffee shops, although the press loves the act. I think artists are like everyone else only more so.

Don't forget nowadays singers are artists, tattooist are artists, interior designers are artists. As I hear it, everyone is now an artist except illustrators.

Valerie,

I would say of course we are different. I would also say that in my opinion dentists are very different. CPA's are different. Politicians are different.

In my adult life I have had several professions. Honestly, at the beginning of each, I was incompetent in my own eyes. But my philosophy has always been, walk the walk, by the time they figure out I'm not what I say I am I will have already arrived. Peggy B's theory is right on the mark.

All people in all professions have self-doubt. If artists have a greater share it's because we are constantly involved in the work of creation.

I am an artist, who will stand against me? Who has devised a test to discredit me?

You might find the following thread interesting: http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...&threadid=1042

From the poll, you could conclude that artists are either more intuitive or that intuitives are more likely to take tests and answer polls.

You may also find this book interesting:

The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You

I think we ARE different because we see the world in a beautiful light, and are driven to express it. (at least most of us).

What I resent is hairdressers and clothing people deciding how I should present myself outwardly because I call myself an artist. The wilder the better?? don't think so...:o

No Artist Left Behind
 

Mike,
I am happy to provide the Universal Artist Standardized Achievement Test in order to correctly assess your artistic capacity.

Circle the correct answer:

1. Angle:square :: paint tube:___________.

a. No answer. There can be no answer.
b. Marshmallow Fluff.
c. What are all these dots? Is this, like, math?

2. Art is long, life is ___________.

a. Bourgeois question! I shall not answer!
b. I didn't think art was long, I thought life was long. Are they both long, maybe?
c. Lifelong.

3. How old were you when you first created art?

a. I was born holding a paint brush. My mother was so unhappy.
b. I have been through many lives as an artist. I mean, like, I was reincarnated over and over again, you know? So 'old' kind of has no meaning to me.
c. I am still in a high chair.

4. What best describes your artistic philosophy?

a. No man is an island in a winter of discontent.
b. Oh, that's enough talk about me. So, what do YOU think of my work?
c. I despise this kind of weak parody. Please get new Moderators for this Forum.

5. How would you describe your work?

a. Significant. Very, very significant.
b. We will be happy to contact you at our convienience as soon as our busy schedule permits us to leave the studio. We like to speak of ourselves in third person plural to imply that there are a lot of us in the studio luxuriating in art sale proceeds.
c. Words! Mere words are useless.

Optional Essay:
If you had to be either a canvas or a stretcher bar, which would you rather be? Discuss and compare.

I gained alot of insight into myself as an "artist" when I learned my Myers Briggs personality type. I highly recommend it. I see how portraiture painting in particular is my path of how to satisfy components of my personality type.

I think this thread is talking about feeling worthy of deeming oneself an "Artist" - as a result of having or not having a certain level of talent for art, or "an eye" for it. This most certainly is a scale of measure that's got A LOT of gray zone. (One day you think you're clearly in past over line, the next day you think it's set at a level you'll never reach). But I think one who is "talented" is also transformed into "artist" by the amount and type of passion that shapes them, which is where understanding ones' Myers Briggs becomes useful.

I am more comfortable now in considering myself an artist as a result of knowing my personality type. As far as earning the title "Artist" by talent, some days I succeed, some days I don't. So some days I'm an artist just because of where my heart is (maybe that's why "fake it 'til you make it" rings true).

I don't believe 'Artist' is a personality type in and of itself. Others are artists because of their personality type - which also explains how we can all be artists but may have very different styles, goals with it, like or not like each others' work.

In terms of feeling awkward or different, yes I very much feel that way, and it can be the basis of confidence or depression. To understand why I'm moved by some sense (a beautiful moment, a song, a ray of light casting on the cat), I assume it's my physiology responding (the basis of talent). To understand why I feel one step behind/ahead of those around me, I turn to my myers briggs description (which reveals my passions).

I thinks it's ironic how being called "An Artist" can both be the highest of compliments and the lowest of insults, depending on one's intonation.

Linda

Artists are different in the sense that we typically employ our energies toward the visual and emotional impact or communication we can effect in others. This applies to the broad categories of fine and commercial art.

Most of the stereotypical descriptions of artists have no more value than those assigned to accountants, scientists, engineers, and others. It has been my experience as a commercial/ industrial as well as fine artist, that in fact there is a lot more in common than usually recognized. The general public has a notion that all artist are creative and those in the measured sciences not. I have found this untrue.

The term Artist, like other professional titles, is simply a broad brush (no pun intended) way of grouping activity and interests. How good you are and your area of specialty has not much to do with it.

The following quote by Robert Henri is one of my favorites. He has a larger definition of art/artist than is typically understood and I would not expect him to encourage a Bouguereau vs. Hockney argument.

"ART when really understood is the province of every human being. It is simply a question of doing things, any thing well. It is not an outside, extra thing.

When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and he opens ways for a better understanding. Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it, shows there are still more pages possible.

The world would stagnate without him, and the world would be beautiful with him, for he is interesting to others. He does not have to be a painter or sculptor to be an artist. He can work in any medium. He simply has to find the gain in the work itself, not outside it".

Robert Henri

Linda, I loved your Standardized Achievement Test! I particularly liked one of the answers for question 1:

When something looks suspiciously like math, my brain shuts down. Does that mean I am really an artist?

Artists are not that special.
 

This is a timely string. Today at the social hour after church, a couple of parishioners were being embarrassingly-to-me impressed by my being an "artist." They attributed special gifts, insights, vision that they denied possessing, themselves.

To me, "artist" covers a broad group of occupations. I am trained in the craft of picture-making, specializing in doing people. The artistry of my occupation is in trying to do a good job, to make good portraits. My innovation or insight consists in handling the tools of my craft - line, value, hue, chroma - to enhance or dramatize what I find interesting about the sitter.

My sensitivity derives from spending a great deal of time observing heads, expressions, features, settings. All these things have been what has interested me since as early as I can remember. I've been a people watcher all my life.

But I won't stand on any pedestal. I'm impressed by physicists, statisticians, dentists, auto mechanics, CPA's, attorneys, carpenters and more, who, like me, have focused a great deal of attention, observation, speculation, love and interest on the specifics of their respective crafts and vocations. Nobody has attributed to them a preternatural gift or sensitivity. Yet the good ones do a great job, are greatly absorbed by their work.

Maybe it's because pictures can be appreciated by nearly everybody that artists are considered special. But I consider anyone who loves what s/he does, who tries to do an excellent job, to top what s/he's done before to be special, and they ought to take their bow, too.

A. I feel a buzzing in my ear!

2. I feel a buzzing in my ear!

c. Had we but world enough, and time, this coyness, Lady, were no crime. We would sit down and think which way to walk and pass our long love's day. Thou by the Indian Ganges' side should rubies find: I by the tide of Humber would complain. My love should grow vaster than empires, and more slow; an hundred years should go to praise thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;

IV. Two hundred to adore each breast, but thirty thousand to the rest; an age at least to every part, and the last age to show your heart. For, lady, you deserve this state, nor would I love at lower rate.

cinco. Now therefore, while the youthful hue sits on thy skin like morning dew, and while thy willing soul transpires at every pore with instant fires, now let us sport us while we may, and now, like amorous birds of prey, rather at once our time devour, than languish in this slow-chapt power. Thus, though we cannot make our sun stand still, yet we will make him run.

((4 + 3)-1) I still feel a ... no, I think it's gone now. I'm just no good on testing day.

Are too!
 

IMO artists are different. We have an inherent appreciation for beauty and a rabid desire to share our vision with others. I hold artists to a much higher standard than I do those who are non-artists.

For example, rudeness and the unwillingness to forgive are things that I can barely bring myself to tolerate in non-artists. However, this type of behavior on the part of an artist would lead me to doubt the integrity and validity of their work.

Now that you mention it, Mike, my vegetable love should grow faster than empires, and more slow.

It seems that the question "Are Artists Different?" is two part. In one case we do something different than other professions which require different skills. You could also say that among the art community we differ depending on subject, media or message. A portrait painter is more specialized in training and purpose than the artist who paints anonymous faces and figures.

The other question deals with personality, behavior, and whether or not there exists differences in temperament or certain skills to the exclusion of others. I, for one, resent suggestions that I, the artist, would not as likely understand matters of business and politics "because you are an Artist" and it would seem that variables of skill, abilities, and perspective contribute to the richness of offering in the marketplace.

If insight and communication are peculiar to artist how does that make them different than musicians, poets, and philosophers?

Stanka, I don't listen to my hairdresser either. But that is not enough. All one has to do in my community is walk past the local Art School to see why there are many who think us odd. Many of the students have enough piercings to make them valuable in the scrap market. And I don't believe any combinations of known oil colors could match the hair colors on display.

Ohhh Linda, you get an A double + for catching my omission. I never liked that vegetable part.

Depends!
 

My first husband and I divorced because I was too "different". My second husband married me because I was so "different". :sunnysmil

Jean

Different strokes!

You're Not Alone!
 

I have long said "I'm totally right-brained", and blamed my lack of discipline on being so. It's a convenient excuse.

Artists are probably more right-brained in their (our) make up. I don't consider myself emotionally frail, but I have all my life been told how "different", "unique", etc., I am -- and believe me, it's not a compliment in many instances!

I have always marched to the beat of my own, singular, drummer. I feel things more than anyone I know; I am an extreme empathetic. It follows, therefore, that I see things differently, because I feel them.

I have long kept a pad of paper on my nightstand, because I will awaken with a vision or a phrase (most often) running through a dream, or my conscious or semiconscious brain. It might be a word. Often it is. I need to write it down, because I have learned that it is some "divine" inspiration, and I don't know the importance it holds yet, whether it will become a painting, a poem, a story, a book. I just know it means something. Other times it will be in a dream, but one from which I awake, knowing I must write it down.

My waking hours are the same. I am often in my own world, and having been divorced for nearly 8 years, and having the luxury of living alone, I find it makes me more of that "different, unique" person I have long been told I am.

I'm almost to the point where I am no longer fit company for any living being -- often myself! ;) But I thank God every day that I was blessed (and cursed) with my way of feeling and seeing things.

Now if I could just translate them to the canvas successfully!

Linda

Here's a link to determining your left/right brain dominance:
http://www.mtsu.edu/~devstud/advisor...dominance.html

Linda,

Thanks for the link to the Left-brained/Right-brained test. I took it also, and it confirmed without a doubt that I am predominantly right-brained. Overwhelmingly so, to my own detriment even. I have always marched to the beat of my own drum---problem is, my rhythm is usually lousy! I keep thinking, "If I could only get it all in one sock!" But schedules and lists are to me what garlic is to a vampire. I do try to follow them, however. It's my only hope of ever becoming an organized, fully functioning person, capable of accomplishing anything.

I don't know about other artists, but often times, I definitely feel "different": Sometimes like a rare flower, other times like a complete freak.

I love the word...
 

"subjective". It covers everything in my life that I agree with my own opinion on. ;) A rare flower to some is completely freakish to others. Once you give yourself permission to be right about your own opinions, it opens all kinds of new possibilities! LOL

Linda

Re: You're Not Alone!
 

"I have all my life been told how "different", "unique", etc., I am -- and believe me, it's not a compliment in many instances!"

Yeah, Linda, I think a lot of artists get told they're "different," but for a whole lot of reasons. Sometimes its because of the kind of awe you get from people who don't believe they can "draw a straight line" (who can?) and sometimes its the mystique of "artist," and sometimes it's different personality types. Who can really say? In my own case, my wife has told me for thirty years that I'm not from this planet, so I guess my experience is similar.

Which is probably why
 

I like you, Gary! :)

Linda

Hi Linda,

Thanks for the link to the left/right brain quiz.

I'm a 12/7 right brained person. One of the descriptions amused me particularly where it states that a left brainer will adapt to a situation but a right brainer will want to change it.

I've just spent a month rearranging the entire office where my husband is the manager. (I might mention that I have hated working there because it was so disorganised.) My original excuse to the owner was that hubby was having trouble getting files out of the filing cabinets because of his broken arm and that we needed open shelves.

Of course we had to move something so the filing cabinets could be moved and we had to move something else, etc., etc. Of course then the filing cabinets had to match so they all had to be covered with green contact paper and the new grey metal shelving had to be painted green and then someone decided that the walls needed painting, and so on.

I finished up lying in bed one night waving my arms about imagining how all this was going to happen in what sequence. Then I resorted to a list.

It is now finished and all twelve employees are very impressed with their new space. ;)

Of course none of this activity gets me any serious painting done but the office is now as shiny as a new pin so some people are happy.

Margaret
 

So am I!

12/7 is good. Right????

;)

Linda

I'm a 12/7 too!

This is Scary...
 

I think we should compare answers....
I'm going to go check mine now...

Linda

Mine says I'm holistic, random, concrete, intuitive, non verbal and fantasy oriented.

That means I am a hippie type, who flits from task to task, learns by doing, knows the answers to lots of inconsequential stuff without knowing the process involved in getting the answers, gives lots of background information when telling a simple story AND believes in fairies. :)

The story-telling bit frustrates my husband no end.

I rely on instinct quite a bit.

My best paintings are done when I react to something and the idea has to be noted immediately. When I try the academic approach of pre-planning and organising, I am quickly "over it."

I'm now going to get my very practical husband to do the test. He is so left brained it is painful.

Hi Margaret,

Wow, it sounds like you were describing me, completely. Are you also a Leo?

Linda

My experience as a "graphic" artist has shown the main difference is that we tend to notice the slightest detail that others may overlook, whether it be an image or emotion in others.

Personally, I like that in myself.

Linda, I was a 16 right, 3 left, but I must admit I cheated on the Algebra/Geometry question. There wasn't an answer for "none of the above"!

I Cheated on that one too!
 

Beth,

I'm laughing, because that's one question I was also looking for a third choice: "Neither".

I am so envious of you taking your road trip and the great class you're going to be taking.
I wish I could join you, but I doubt that Marvin could handle us both!

Linda

This is an interesting conversation. I'm 10 right/9 left, so it makes sense that I've created this web site which I would say is a combination of right/left. But, on the test, there were several questions where I wanted a third choice of "both" but math wasn't one of them. Algebra was my worst subject. I find if I don't get some stimulation on both sides, something feels missing although the aesthetic creativity gets missed the most.

I'm 12/7 with right brain dominant also but I haven't analyzed my answers. Makes sense because of all the boards I sit on and my enjoyment of the legal puzzles they often bring me. Don't know what that has to do with my art, but I can't paint something I can't see. People who can achieve a likeness without having the subject in front of them in some form have always awed me.

I got a score of 15/4 right brain dominant. I wonder if any of you other "ARBIES" (R.B., as in "right" "brainers") have difficulties with clutter, procrastination, time management and stuff like that. I have the book for you, if so: Organizing for the Creative Person by Dorothy Lehmkuhl & Dolores Cotter Lamping.

Incidentally, have any of you 'arbies' been diagnosed with ADD or AD/HD? It's curious, but dealing with ADD without meds is very much like following the recommendations in this book. I've heard tell that ADD was once under-diagnosed; now it's over-diagnosed. Hm! I wonder if ADD (AD/HD) is right-brain dominance dressed up as a pathology.

Catherine, I suspect that ADD is simply one end of a normal continuum of neurological functionality, and perhaps not at the extreme tail of the bell-shaped curve, either. I'll have to take a look at the book you mentioned to see how they recommend dealing with it, but in my experience (years in school psychology) meds are the best way to cope for the average family that encounters the disorder. Few people have the resources and intestinal fortitude to embark on exacting behavioral interventions and meanwhile the kid suffers.

Catherine,

I'm wondering how you can be so right brain dominant and yet had a successful career in computer programming. That's an intriguing surprise.

The ADD, ADHD question is very interesting. I think that typical schooling simply isn't geared to address certain types of children. When my son dropped out during his senior year of high school, I was so relieved...can you believe it? His schooling was totally stressful and traumatic for me because he had no interest and it was a daily battle from the beginning of his schooling.

But, then he went and did the GED pre-testing and I got a big shock. He got almost honors in everything. That was about 9 years ago.

After many glowing articles over the last few years, this last December, he was written up in the St. Petersburg Times for his chef accomplishments...his restaurant was chosen "Best Both Sides of the Bay" (Tampa Bay). He was totally responsible for the last 3 years for creating the menu and totally running the kitchen. When he gets really interested in something, he's unstoppable and his learning ability is unbelievable...he soaks it up like a sponge almost like he has photographic memory.

He was diagnosed as ADD when he was 16. They recommended medication, but he refused to do so out of pride.

I've also read that some of the artistic greats of the past were manic-depressive...is that the same as bi-polar? It's late and my memory is failing here.

Cynthia

Cynthia, my son is also ADD and I've worked with many ADD kids professionally as well. And yes, bipolar is another term for manic-depressive; it refers to the two emotional extremes of mania and depression that sometimes characterize the disorder. Glad to hear that your son is doing so well! You must be extremely proud.

Leslie,

We were posting at eactly the same time! Yes, indeed I am a proud and relieved mom. But, it's still hard to get him to pay his bills on time and take care of other routine things. Just seems like there are certain kinds of creative minds that just aren't connected to this earthly plane.

I am 9/10, but I comment on the other part of this thread. I am different because I am an artist, not an artist becuse I am different. Because of all the training I enjoyed as a very small child, I became an artist, not because I had any unique qualities. I just needed to make money! Drawing did that for me.

It is a symptom of an uneducated (in art) society that we have so relatively few artists. Many more people could be artists if they were trained as I was as a very small child. Is art a gift, or is it something that can be learned? Is that the criteria of being "different?" I believe it can be learned. It stands to reason that if you do not teach someone math, they will not become mathematicians. Isn't it the same with art?

Catherine,

That brings up another question I've been wondering. Do any of my fellow RBD (Right Brained Dominant) artists have a photographic memory? I have one that is especially accurate for numbers, though math was always my worst subject. I have a photographic memory for other things as well, but numbers are always right on.

For all the 25 years I was married to my ex-husband, he would ask me his father's telephone number when he wanted to call.

Of course he is total LBD, and an engineer....

Linda