ART--vs--ARTIST--vs--ART........Blah, Blah, Blah........

The endless battle....in which no one wins....

One of the things I have always wondered about is why there are sooooo many fights in the arts community. Generally, they revolve around what *is* or *isn't* art, who *is* or *isn't* an artist, on and on, ad infinitum, ad nauseaum. Sometimes, there seems to be so much energy expended on the fighting about art that I wonder what gets it started in the first place. Is it insecurity? Is it the fact that there is a certain amount of dollars to be spent on art and everyone is fighting for the limelight? Is it from people who feel unrecognized? Is it from gallery owners who felt they need the fuss to sell?
Over all, I find it a self-strangling circle. This has to have been going on since art began; somehow I get these visions of cavemen whacking the daylights out of each other with rocks for *prime-cave-wall-space* and others critiquing their drawings there-on. I mean, you know something like this happened, unless cavemen were more civil than the current art community...  ;-)
(maybe so....oooooo.....ouch!)
While this was all going through my head on and off a few weeks ago, I was reading an article about a University that had expanded their gallery and truly, they had a broad representation of art (in all forms) in their collection. I ripped the pages from the magazine and quickly retreated to the studio.
I kept seeing the printed word *art* over and over through the article and began cutting out the tiny words, until I had enough for what I wanted to do.
And then the phrase popped out at me from the text: various forms of artwork.
That was a saver.
I wasn't in the humor for big art, so I grabbed some ATC stock, inks, etc and began tinkering. Just something small to play with this perpetual idea that any one person or style holds the TRUE meaning of ART or ARTIST.

That we might have wings to fly from repetitive controversy on art, which is a HEALER above all else....

During the work, when I was waiting for elements to dry, I grabbed an old dictionary and looked up *artist* just for the heck of it.
See below.

This covers a LOT of territory.......it is not confined to something shoved safely in a little box....

The second definition brought even more meaning, depending on how one takes it.
"Thou art" means "You are."
YOU ARE. (did the archaic definition have much more meaning and substance than the modern?)
And that says more than all the bickering and yapping and sideways remarks.
That this WORD that causes vocal wars has two meanings that are the same for an artist; WE ARE.
I AM.
YOU ARE.
THOU ART.
ARTIST.
And one other thought; art is not the chattel of the rich, nor highly educated, nor the social snob~~art is the voice of ALL.
Don't be intimidated.
Go make art!!!



Pax....