Being an artist

You get a phone call. You take down a number. You start drawing and decorating the number. You might even give a 3-D effect to it. You know what you are doing? You are doodling. Doodling may not be sketching but it brings out the creativity in you. That makes you an artist. Does this mean everyone is an artist? Why not?

You may not have figured out the artist in you or you may have already found out the niche in you. You are probably a wanna be artist. All you have to do is acknowledge it. A person who is good is making delicious dishes is a food artist. A person who is good at writing is a word artist (writer). A person who is good at making music is a music artist (musician). But all this is from the seed of creativity. Can you think of someone who is highly creative, a baby? Of course, they are the most creative of us all. To them everything they come across is an adventure. They try to perceive them through touch, taste and spending time with them (carrying them around with them). And if you sit back and think why they are more creative, the answer is they don’t care about what others will say. And that is what makes a good artist. Being a little eccentric is not bad. Everybody is. It is how good you mask it that makes the difference. But the fun thing about being an artist is he doesn’t have to care about masking his eccentricity. Break all the rules. Give the child inside you a chance.

If you get stuck on an idea, then sleep on it, literally. When you get up, you will find yourself with great answers. One other place to get ideas is your shower. Create a special place for your work even if it is just a corner of a room. That will make you feel special.

But many aspiring artists may have an opinion different from this. Some of the supporting statements are

· You will not get discovered as easily as the success stories put it.

· You will never find a gallery that will understand your work and feel passionately for it like you do.

· You will not be able to make a living by selling your work.

· No matter how original you think your work is, it would have been done earlier by someone.

· You can never price your work they way you value them.

· The people around you look at you like a failure for spending your life’s worth for this.

I can’t argue with that. That is the reality check. But I can give you one thing for sure; an artist lives his dreams and sees happiness in his work. So love your work. You will be an artist ‘at work’.