August 5, 2014 dVerse/Letter to a Group of 'Young' Artists

Letter to a Group of ‘Young’ Artists

I am writing you today

To express my sincere impression

Of our meeting yesterday

I had hoped for more...

Perhaps 'artists' with more experience

I am wondering

If you are an artist in transition

From a lifetime of doing something else

Perhaps it is too soon to call yourself an ‘artist’

What is an ‘artist’ after all

One who is focused on his work

One who is willing to sacrifice everything

For his work

You know

It is said it only takes three things

To be an ‘artist'

One is the desire to be

And most people have that

Two is the determination

A lot of people have that

But the one that really makes or breaks an ‘artist’

Is discipline

This is the ‘bugger boo’

For few artists have it

When you are just beginning

(And maybe an artist is always 'just beginning'

And in transition) it would be best

To create a body of work before you show the work

It is an insult to ask someone to look to your work

Or to speak to your work 

Before you have created it

To say....well I think I want to......

I’m going to.......

I hope to........

Show yourself who you are

For you really do have it all

A person who is interesting

Filled with light

And now you have the gift of time

All you have to do is to do it

Be yourself

Be your best self

Do the work you were meant to do

Do you have any idea how tired it is to drag out 'old' work

'Old' work that has been sleeping under a pile

All of its’ energy seeped out onto the pavement

It is nothing but yesterday’s tired experiment

With the visual arts

'It' shows

Everything shows

On its’ face everything is written

You do not fool anyone

I am showing my every stroke

My every attempt to be

My failures

My successes

There is no place to hide

Yesterday I had the feeling

I was with a group of ‘want-to-be’ artists

Not a group of hard working

Devoted artists

Artists who had answered the questions

For themselves

And were working on the answers

They had found for themselves

Each of you maybe 'artists' one day

But in my opinion it is to soon to tell

August 5, 2014

Note:  I do not mean to be unkind, but I think, perhaps people use the term 'artist' too loosely. Because you want to be an artist, doesn't make you an artist.  What is 'authentic,' comes with the work.  A person who is not sure, is a person who has not put in the work, the hours, the years.....is not an artist....yet.