The Role of the Artist

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

A true artist must continue to create everyday. If an artist is not creating, he is not doing his job and he is not following his purpose. The true creator has a desire to construct, to make something from nothing, to birth something with his hands, body, mind, voice or instrument. The need to create is derived from an instinct. There is something within that must get out... usually in order to communicate the universal subconscious messages of humankind. To create is to give; to destroy is to take. The artist ought to be giving every day-- not taking.

A friend once said to me, "Creativity, as you probably know, is never correct or incorrect. Creativity is the start of something new, whether accepted or not." An artist must take risks. There is a certain level of vulnerability that is always at stake when one creates, as one is giving part of one's self to another. It is key that the artist always be aware of his own desire and need to communicate, regardless of the response to it. Art is never right or wrong... Life is rarely black and white, but gray. The gray areas are where the risks are... where the apprehension is... It can be unsettling and uncomfortable. But when an artist relishes in the gray area for a bit, he finds that breakthroughs happen. But art istelf ought not to be gray... in life the uncertainty of gray is necessary and in the artist's journey it is necessary, but in art itself, gray is too safe... It is crucial in art to be violent-- in the sense that you have a strong gut feeling and you act on it with strong artisitic choices. Art ought to cause a violent emotional reaction. Art should make someone laugh or cry or scream or puke. An artist should never be concerned with a repulsive reaction to his art-- for a repulsive reaction is a very strong reaction. And whether or not the artist realizes it, a strong reaction-- whether negative or positive-- means that the viewer was deeply effected by the art. Great art leaves the viewer in a different state than he or she was in before taking in the art.... and because art is communication, something was therefore successfully communicated regarding the human condition... Even if communicated in a love or distaste for the most minute detail.

The artist has this need to communicate. And whatever the medium of communication, the artist must continue to communicate through his way. Art is comprised of form and content. Sometimes the form may move someone, but the content may not leave an impression. Or vice versa. There is no right or wrong... there is simply differing experiences. In "The Fountainhead," Howard Roark exemplifies the type of artist of which I speak. He has an innate need to make buildings with his hands, to bring them up out of the earth and to do it with integrity. He would rather work his own way, in a coal mine-- where he is working with raw materials, and sweating real sweat and bleeding from his hands, than take a short cut and create a building to gain societal approval. The true artist, like Howard Roark, creates to create and knows that as long as he is doing this, he is fulfilling his role. Even if he works on a building that he does not like, but gets the opportunity to build it from his heart, from raw materials, his own way... he is filling his role. An actor merely needs a space-- and any simple source of light. A writer need only a pen and a scrap of paper, a musician-- need only the instrument... Here, no fancy scenery, no elaborate computer, no chords that plug into amps... are necessary. An artist need only the raw materials and to keep creating, to keep the wheels turning, to have fun, to thrive on it, to keep going despite obstacles or any Peter Keatings they might run into along the way... If the artist pays attention to what he needs to be doing, he creates and communicates with integrity and he fills his role. If the artist is true to himself, the rest will follow.