My Definition of Art

I've always hated when you ask someone what they do, and they say, "I'm an Artist." I cringe. I recoil. I have to contain myself from lashing out and saying something unkind. I guess I could say, "show me your portfolio, "  and then carry on the discussion. I hate it worse when people in the media referrer to a Pop Star as an "Artist." Come on, someone who panders to the lowest common denominator tastes is an Artist? That just sucks.

I've never referred to myself as an Artist because it just seems so pretentious. I've been a song writer, musician, performer, painter, writer, but I shudder at the thought of saying, "I'm an Artist." Why, why does this bother me so much?  I've mulled it over in my mind countless times. I've even discussed it with friends, but I don't thing I've ever come to any definitive conclusions.

Maybe it has to do with watching people perform at being Artists, and somehow thinking their work didn't quite hit the mark. Someone could say, well, good or true Art is a matter of opinion, what exactly do you think an Artist is? And then I'd have to pause, and say, hold on a second, I don't exactly have a stock definition of an Artist.

I have to look back at the first times I heard someone call someone an Artist, and that was probably when I was about four or five, and it was probably relatives referring to me as I screwed around with crayons, pencils, and pens. As I recall, what constituted me being an "Artist" was drawing a picture that looked like something else. It could have been a dog. It could have been a cat, but it had to actually "look" like that object. My first definition of Art was, "a branch of study that accurately recreates objects in their exact or near exact likeness", so an Artist was the person who "recreates objects in their exact or near-exact likeness," a copy-cat of sorts.

In high school I discovered  Abstract Expressionistic Art, and the likes of Jackson Pollack, Paul Klee, and Mark Rothko, among others. It liberated me to know that things didn't have to "look" like other things in order to be called Art. What was more important was that the works elicited a myriad of feelings from the viewer, and that if something looked like something else, but left you cold, maybe it wasn't "good" Art or even Art.

I began to see Art in degrees. What was the painter or sculptor trying to accomplish? What feelings was I getting? Was the painting rendered to show a facet of emotion or life or was it completed to sell a product? Was the air brushed Leprechaun sitting on the pot of gold with the sexy pixies flying in front of his face equal to "Guernica?"

I don't think that all Art is equal or that some paintings or drawings are even Art. I don't think that just because someone draws or paints a picture, takes a photograph, or writes a song, he or she is an Artist. You can be a painter, illustrator, photographer, or song writer, but unless, somehow, you delve deep inside to bring forth your spin on the human condition, you are not an Artist.