Upon hearing the words “art” or “artist”, we unconsciously associate them with very narrow categories, such as painting or music.
Although painters and musicians are artists, the art vocabulary includes way more categories than these two.
According to Wikipedia, there is no generally agreed definition of what constitutes art, but a good representation goes as follows :
“Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.”
I was one of those who thought of art as a boring and limited thing, until a close friend of mine, an artist to whom I dedicate this article, completely altered my perception.
As children, lots of us had great talents, creative abilities, and ideas that felt like play to us but hard to others, I can recall many of them for myself.
Growing up, we tend to dismiss those and comply with society’s pressure to conform, we are instructed to “adapt”, consequently putting down our creativity, especially when getting through school, university, and the job market (industrial-age-like systems), where creativity receives little to no praise, when in fact, the most influential individuals across history were those who leveraged their creative thinking and abilities.
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
~Pablo Picasso
Going further, I now think that an “artist” includes every person who puts out their creative body of work, a uniquely crafted art that reflects their creative capabilities, talents, character, experiences, mission, passion, or simply one’s thinking; consisting of, for example, musicians, writers, poets, architects, painters, playwriters, designers, photographers, innovators, and any other form of creative job/work (the possibilities are limitless, as every human has potential to express his creativity in a form or another).
This creative body of work is very noticeable among singers, or painters, but takes a bit of effort to spot among other creatives.
One’s art is individual and contextual. I’ll take for example Gibran Khalil Gibran (writings & paintings), Bernard Khoury (architecture), in addition to local artists I encountered whose work was very unique to their crazy personalities.
Your creative body of work, which is your art, is attached to your uniqueness and creativity as a human being, that’s how you’re thereby, an artist.
Understanding that each one of us has his own “art” motivates me to get to know people better, to discover their hidden competencies.
Unfortunately, lots of people die with their potential still waiting to unfold.
As an “artist”, you must uncover your craft, your art, and put your creative body of work out to the world, to unleash your full potential; a journey of self-discovery and self-realization.
“Alas for those that never sing, but die with all their music in them.”
~Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
“The purpose of life is to discover your gift.
The work of life is to develop it.
The meaning of life is to give your gift away.”
Let me redefine simply what art means, it is the creative expression of one’s own soul.
And now I ask you, what is your art ?
Sensational🙌