What do artists do?
Artist Grayson Perry recently spoke about a group of schoolchildren who were asked that question by a museum curator. One little girl offered, “Artists are people who sit at Starbucks and eat organic food.”
But after touring the museum, the curator asked the question again.
This time the little girl said, “Artists notice things.”
It takes a special kind of person to notice things. And it takes courage to create something from those observations. I believe that the best artists are makers; they notice, they think, they work and they do.
The real art world is a far cry from how popular culture views us – the slothful drunk, the starving dreamer and the Starbucks-sipping hippie. But being an artist goes beyond those labels into how we view the world and the choices that we make.
For making art is not just what artists do, it’s who we are.
Actively involved in the contemporary art world throughout her career, Crista Cloutier is the founder of The Working Artist, an online business program for artists. Honored as an “Influencer in the Contemporary Art World” by LinkedIn, Crista’s work has reached artists in over 45 different countries. Visit www.theworkingartist.com/free-updates to join Crista’s mailing list.
