What's Art? What's Not.

Having slugged through Art courses given by artists, slapping on the word art doesn't impress me. And it surely did not turn me into an artist even though I loved the time spent dabbling at it. Art is anything. Truly. A tree whose leaves have fallen. A bird that sings gloriously to our ears. Clouds and sea and land that grips our hearts and has impact when we look at it, is art. Art is fun to do and recreational and soul searching. But "artist" is not merely a word like "art" we can toss around. The courses in drawing and painting did not come near to making me or most of the other students, artists. It introduced us to the love of doing those things and an appreciation of what a true artist is. They are the few who had genuine talent, did the work learning how to become an artist and then went out and "did" art and some went on to evolve from their learning to develop their own styles, to do their own art and hone what that became. Some created items that were of their own minds and spirits. To many, they look simple. They didn't look at other true artists and say, "Aha, I can do that" and flew out to buy a stack of paint tubes, go off to their "studios" and slap on the colour and call themselves "artists". Those are the overnight roadies. The true artist emerges from a very long pregnancy of their muses after they have accomplished all of the necessary background in techniques and practice and sacrifice. So, years later,  made a dot and called  it art or piled a bunch of squares cleverly arranged or made horrors of paint slapped everywhere or dripped or smeared or globbed on a piece of canvas or wood or leather or a wall. But before they did that thing which they call their development in the field, they did the work. They didn't smugly look at someone else's creation and say, "Hey, I can do that." Of course they can, and some even get away with selling their art knock offs, but it isn't art by an artist. That stuff is called "craft". There are those who defend their artism by spouting off their theories but no, sorry, you must do the work and it's hard work and years and years of it. The people who know true art, know the difference between playing an artist and being one. People will go to amateur art shows and enjoy what they see and buy the pieces, but let's not kid ourselves. It's kind of fun art done by those who don't want to do the work. They like to sit down and have fun painting or sketching or cartooning or drawing. They are having a good, easy time and loving it. Many of them could even be great artists, but unfortunately true art isn't something you can trip into and become, overnight. Your doctor has mega years of training before he or she can be called doctor. The architect studies and works and does years of education just as teachers and accountants and scientists and so on, do. They are the professionals because they have proved they know the nitty and the gritty of their titles. Anyone can do art, but few are artists.