Being an artist :

Being an artist is not what most people think ; it id not having “great philosophical ideas” that you want to sell; the persons doing so are more “art-entrepreneurs” than artists, and what they actually do is fooling people, it is make believe not art. 

Let me explain: imagine someone with an entrepreneur kind of mind, someone with good communication skills, thinking: “With “art” I can make good money.”

This person will therefor think of an image, something that will unsettle people’s mind (like advertising really), then he will take the philosophical dictionary and make a “soup” of philosophical sentences (the least understandable the better), with enough triggering key-words, like society, decay, etc.

It is all make believe, it is all sales, most people are fooled are fooled by their attitude and think: “Wow this is art! You need a special kind of mind, of knowledge to get it.”

No! it is not really art and no you don’t need anything special to get art! Actually, when you really understand what they say (i.e. are learned in philosophy), well you have to laugh, because they don’t really say anything at all, some even contradict themselves as they go, the truth is that they made a compilation of philosophical quotations (without saying that they are quotations usually). It is just sales and it makes me sad to see how well it is working, so much so that nowadays it is the only “art” in people’s mind.

Now, what is an artist?

First, it is someone who didn’t choose to be one; the “art-entrepreneurs” choose (for money), the artist didn’t.

Art choose you. It is part of who you are, a huge chaos of millions of ideas; feelings; emotions… It want to get out, it want to “see the world”, and if you don’t let it out (by means of writing, making music, films, plays, paintings, sculptures, etc), then it eats you; plus the more you let it out, the more there is…

Some lucky ones manage to make a living out of it, (think Da Vinci, Luc Besson, Shakespeare etc).

Most can’t and work as normal people while making art on the side. And others just can’t do art and live a miserable life. Finally there is the ones who just live without art, it is so strong in them that they cannot do anything else, and so they do make art, but without selling it, they often get crazy and/or die of misery (think Van Gogh, Balzac, Baudelaire etc). Also let’s not forget all the women that lived horrid lives because they had no “right” to be artists, few did it anyway, but very very few were recognised or accepted (one of those very few was George Sand, who change her name so it sound male and be able to be published, she also had short hair, male clothes and smoked the pipe).

So, yes, art is a part of you, it is here whether you like it or not, and it wants to get out in any way possible, driving you crazy if you don’t.

Now, for the people looking at art, I would like you to forget the “elitist” feeling that entrepreneurs made up.

Looking at art is feeling. Yes, it can also make you think, but it is definitely not something you shouldn’t or couldn’t understand. If you feel an emotion, you understand art. (think about music, nobody told you that it was complicated and so you enjoy it !)

That is why I do not like to tell what I had in mind when I made a piece; because what you feel when looking at it is so much more important, I already painted it, I already said what I needed to say, but you, you are the one looking now, feeling, finding new meanings inside yourself and that is the most important for me, that is why I want people to look at my art, that is you looking at it who gives meaning to my art.

Another thing I wanted to say: Most people tell me that my paintings look like me. And yes, since our art is a part of us, we put that part of us inside our creations (no matter the medium), so when you look (or listen) at an art piece, then you see the inner self of the artist.

Therefor it is quite easy to tell an artist from an “art-entrepreneur”; compare for example Da Vinci, to this guy (sorry don’t remember his name) I saw in a museum: he made a painting of a white canvas with a black dot and a black canvas with a white dot…

In Da Vinci you feel an inner self full of beauty, incredible ideas, creativity, light, etc. While in the second you see an accountant, no emotions, no feelings, no ideas… Emptiness…

So, trust your heart, your feelings, and enjoy art.