Being An Artist

When I was 13 I received my first camera, a Canon AE-1, for Christmas and I was hooked. From then on I knew that art, especially photography, had to be a part of my everyday life. I was lucky. I never had to think about what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always knew I had to be in the arts and I never swayed, not even once. My career is in arts administration. I am not happy unless I am around people creating and/or surrounded by art on the walls. I will always find time to create. I am miserable when I am not creating. Creating is a part of me like one of my organs. Being an artist is who I am. I always have my camera around to capture the shadows on the wall or my sketchbook to capture my latest idea and get it out of my head and on to paper. What about you? Why are you an artist?

Quotes from the Artist Mentor by Ian Jackman

"Most artists do not set out on a career in art trying to become great; their ambition is to make art."

"Roy Liechtenstein, when he first started doing comic-book paintings, said he didn't know what else to do. I just have to do something, so I do something and it might be really stupid, but I just can't think of anything esle to do." - Bruce Nauman

"Why make art? Because I thing there's a child's voice in every artist saying: 'I am here. I am somebody. I made this. Won't you look?'" -Chuck Close

"What an artist is trying to do for people is bring them closer to something, because of course art is about sharing; you wouldn't become an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought. I am constantly preoccupied with how to remove distance so that we can all come closer together, so that we can all begin to sense we are the same, we are one." -David Hockney

"I think any artist would say that first and foremost they make their work for themselves. Look at the disastrous effects that occur when, for example, a group of marketing executives dilutes a film director's vision, or when a gallerist talks an artist into making something for the market, or the editorial board hacks up a writer's work." -Bill Viola