What Is An Artist?
For people who work 9 to 5 jobs, the idea that they could be an artist is alien. In many respects, there’s no room for art in work, but this concept is flawed and it needs to die.
What is an artist? What is art? How are these things defined and who exactly gets to set the definition? Is everyone an artist like Picasso said or is creative genius reserved for those fortunate enough to be blessed with talent at birth as the ancient Greeks and Romans believed?
Perhaps the answer is not so clear or easy to define. Some ideas of what constitutes art, and as a consequence the artist, are narrow and elitist. Other ideas, such as defined in The Artist’s Manifesto, are open and all-inclusive, suggesting that everyone is an artist albeit perhaps many don’t believe it of themselves.
The concept of art has changed over the centuries and not everyone will agree on its definition, so perhaps a good place to start is the origins of the term and what it originally meant.
The use of term artist dates back to the 13th century and is derived from the French word artiste, the Italian word artista, and from the Latin ars.
Initially used to refer to someone who exercised their skills in the areas of the arts such…
