I am an artist

I read an article a few months ago by an artist who recently published a book.  She said that when she first heard herself say that she was an artist it felt weird.  She said that in the past she might have said she did art or she might say she was an artist but then she would feel like she had to explain or to justify herself.  But one day someone asked her what she did and she said, "I am an artist."  Then she stopped talking.  She just let it hang in the air.

This got me thinking.  I love to do art but I had never actually said that I was an artist.  Artists draw or paint wonderful pictures.  They create beautiful things that people want to look at or even buy.  I didn't sell things or have people even ask that I give them things I made.  Heck, I think my own family even tossed the birthday cards that I so lovingly made for them.  I couldn't be an artist.  If I said that I was an artist, it opened me up to criticism and ridicule. People would expect masterpieces or at least something worthy of hanging on the wall. 

But then I thought...what if I am?  I am a scrapbooker and card maker.  I make pretty pages and cards from paper.  I use rubber stamps and markers.  I've even painted a background using acrylics.  I collage and make origami.  What if the things I create, whether anyone would buy them or not, whether or not anyone would proudly display them, just what if those things are art??  Could it be that I am an artist and just didn't know it?

So I decided to try it on for size.  I went to the bookstore and bought a book about art journals and another on mixed media.  I searched online for art tutorials.  I took an online class from a mixed media artist.  I did art.  I still kept comparing it to all those other people and knew that I did art but the words wouldn't come out of my mouth.  I couldn't say that I was an artist.  It just didn't fit.

Then, just by accident, I found a wonderful online community of artists that said they didn't judge.  They didn't compare.  The goal was to do your best work and then to be brave enough to give it to other people.  The only thing that almost made me not join them was that someone wrote in a post that they didn't want any art submitted that was too "scrapbooky."  That was where I came from.  It was my creative product.  But, I decided it was time to jump in or forget it.  I wanted to be an artist.  I wanted to create beautiful things.  So I joined and began creating art. 

Here we sit a little over 4 months later and I love to do art.  Am I an artist?  Yes, perhaps I am.  I wrote it on paper.  I wrote it in the title of this blog post.  I even started working on a mixed media hand that clearly states that "I am an artist."  Do I believe it?  Maybe.  Am I getting used to the idea? Definitely.  Like the artist in the article I read, I am going to say it and let it hang out there.  When she said it, it hung for a few seconds then the conversation continued with the people around her being curious abut her art.  They didn't doubt that she was an artist.  They didn't judge her for saying she was an artist.  They didn't ask if she was famous or if she sold masterpieces.  They were just interested.  She said that she is an artist and she believed it about herself.  She even published a book about creating art but she would be an artist even if she hadn't.

Because I believe you get better at the things you practice, my goal has been to create something everyday.  A whole lot of creating and learning has happened since that fateful day 4 months ago.  Is my art all good?  No, that I can honestly say, but much of it is quite nice.  With that long, drawn out introduction to my artistic endeavors, I bring you my art.  I promise not to share all of it but I will share some of it. 

I am an artist.  Thanks for taking a look.