Number Seven: What is the path?

What is the path to becoming an artist? For ages, people have asked this question. The simpler question is “how do I get there?” “There” being the destination of calling yourself an artist. We need look no further than a quick Google search on “art history” to get an intensive history of art and its practices throughout time. From the Renaissance era to the Baroque period to the rise of the Impressionists and modern art to name a small few, history is not lacking examples of art and its reciprocal effect on the times in which it was made. Long or short of it, art has been around for a minute and ain’t goin nowhere.

So why do we still ask this question with all the historical information at our fingertips. The key word is “historical”. Art has always been a product and a driver of the times when it was made. The Renaissance was not just an art movement. Science, architecture and the letters were also undergoing a transformation which was both influenced by and influential to the artists of the day. Developments in music and fashion also directly fed the motivations of the artists. And lastly, the religious climate dictated art by artists who were employed by patrons of the church and antagonized those that painted in opposition to the current religious sensibilities. As times changed and the power of the church transformed, so too did the art. Artists drove the climate and were driven by such issues as religion, culture, society, economics and morality.

In short, many factors affect the artist. Local culture and more increasingly today, global affairs contribute to both the content and methodology of artists. Technology fuels our imagination and drives our practice constantly. We can look through social media and see thousands of artworks of those past and present. If I am an artist creating work in the 2020s, with all this information available, how do I find my own pathway? How do I learn to make art? How do I know what type of art I should be making? How do I get there?

No artist can separate themselves from the times they live in. Our clothes, talk, music, societal concerns, and personal interests all influence the art we make. A painted portrait doesn’t mean the same thing today as it did in the 1500s, 1600s, 1900s and even early 2000s. We cannot be outside of where we are and that’s okay. My world in 2022 is not the same world as Leonardo Da Vinci’s world. And so my art will necessarily look different. My “world”, my “culture” will not look the same as anyone else’s except my own. An artist is first a person who makes art and the person making the art is a part of their work .

So, to the question, “What is the pathway to becoming an artist?” I say there is no answer. No right answer at least. Leonardo Da Vinci didn’t have Leonardo Da Vinci as a reference to follow. Michelangelo, Velazquez, Hals, Sargent, Titian did not have themselves to look at for guidance. They made work. If you want to find encouragement in history, have a field day. I love art history and love to study it. If you think art history is outdated, no problem. If you want to make art to address current social or political issues, that’s amazing. If you focus on technical prowess, personal interests, optical phenomena, celebrities and cultural figureheads, do what you want. Do whatever you want! The pathway to becoming an artist is to make art, purely and simply. Nothing else matters. Anything that matters will reveal itself through the work. No worries. There is no roadblock to being an artist because there is no road to becoming a artist. There is no problem.