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What Makes Someone An Artist?

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While I was re-organizing my workspace today I found an old artist statement from a previous mentor of mine, James Michael Starr. I read it again and was reminded of why I’ve kept it all these years. I hope it speaks to you as much as it does to me.

What Makes Someone An Artist?

I could draw from a very early age. I remember, when I was about four, drawing a shield on the side of a cardboard box so that I could climb into a fantasy police cruiser and be Broderick Crawford on the 50’s television drama, Highway Patrol.
I also remember many of my first drawings were of revolvers. Apparently I watched a little too much tv.
As I grew up, everyone knew what I’d be. It was obvious. I could draw very well.
But, did that make me an artist?
When I was in high school, I entered the Draw Me contest to win a scholarship for an artist’s correspondence course. I didn’t win, but I took the course anyhow and paid for it with a paper route, throwing the Dallas Morning News. Evenings I sat in my room and did lessons in transparent wash, pen & ink, and charcoal pencil.
Was I an artist yet?
I was an art major in college, worked in an art store, and then started my career as an art director. At home I tried to paint, but couldn’t. I had nothing to say.
Twenty years passed. When I was 42, I looked back. On the eleven-year, childhood separation from my mother that even now cannot seem to be recovered. On my best friend who doused his car with gasoline and set himself on fire while I was away at college. On the failure of my sixteen-year marriage and the passing of youth’s warm sun. And on the rediscovery of a loving God who’d been there all along.
Now I had something to say. Now I was an artist.
Dallas critic, Jim Fowler, wrote, “Painters attempt to capture the world around them and color the image with a little bit of their insides; artists attempt to capture the world inside them using the images they see in the external world.”
What’s inside of you? What do you have to say?

- James Michael Starr

Instant Film

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polaroid

This polaroid paper model by German artist Julia Guther is just beautiful. It totally captures the essence of how rare a polaroid is nowadays.

I remember when I first heard that polaroid was going to stop making film. My heart sank and my fists were raised. How could they betray me like this? So I, like any polaroid enthusiast, grabbed as much film as I could while it lasted. Then things got really quite. Sure there was speculation and even some great efforts to bring them back.

Then in 2008, along came the IMPOSSIBLE project. They bought the last remaining polaroid plant in the Netherlands along with all the original machinery on a 10-year lease. They’ve already released two new version of film, the PX-100 and PX-600. I have yet to buy any, but my finger is itching to pull the trigger.

With all this digital information floating around it’s nice to take a break from it all and shoot something tangible.

The Possibilities Are Endless

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Today, more than any other day in age, we have more opportunities to do something great. Not only that, but we have a larger audience for our work to be seen. You can google just about anything right now and find at least one website that shows you how to do it.

The possibilities are endless, and that’s my problem. I think we need to know what our limitation are. We can’t be good at everything we do. We need to learn to accept our failures. We need to stop being so polite all the time and just be honest. Like, I’m a Christian but sometimes I just need to say “fuck you sadness”. That sort of thing.

I’ve been in a real rut lately. Thinking a lot about what makes me happy and what doesn’t. One of which is always easier to see than the other. But just thinking on such things is never helpful. Action is needed. Change is the only thing constant. I’m afraid of the unknown but I’m ready for it. I don’t want to live comfortably. I will not work in a cubicle for the rest of my life. The possibilities are endless.