Am I an Artist?

What does the word artist mean? It seems to be as vague as the word art. Can either of them even be truly defined? Technically speaking, from the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of an artist is, “A person who creates paintings or drawings as a profession or hobby,” or, “A person who practices or performs any of the creative arts, such as a sculptor, filmmaker, actor, or dancer.” These definitions are only speaking of the physical arts; they fail to include conceptual thoughts or ideas. The power of a concept is very real, in my opinion, and I believe that an artist is anyone who decides that he or she wants to be one. Individuals have the freedom to label themselves as artists and define what that means to them.

I enjoy having an open mind to consider and accept a wide range of definitions for this word. But of course, there are two sides to every story. Occasionally I feel like the word artist gets thrown around and used way too easily. Sometimes it makes me feel disrespected that anyone can claim himself or herself to be an artist. But then in other moments, I think it’s a beautiful thing that we have come so far as a society to accept individuals’ thoughts about themselves and what they want to identify with. The majority of the time I am very accepting of it, but there are certainly moments of doubt and frustration.

I think that a lot of people, who are neither creative nor interested in the arts, assume that being an artist is easy. You get to sit around and paint all day, how hard can that be? It’s fun. Many of my friends and colleagues have made comments about me majoring in painting and design versus their general business or communications major, the point being that my college experience must be a walk in the park. It is hard to explain to people that making art is difficult. Every tiny detail is thought through from the size of the canvas for a painting to the fortieth time you have mixed the wrong shade of off-white. These moments make or break a piece of artwork, and for a lot of artists, making artwork is their job.

Anyways, back to the word artist. I think the word will always be a little unsettled with me. Some days I wake up and am so proud to be an artist, to work on my art, and am genuinely content with the majority of people not understanding it. Other days I honestly don’t want to associate myself with it. But that is totally valid. Committing to the label is hard in today’s world when everything around you is rapidly changing and evolving. Additionally, just to make things more confusing, I also am a designer. I design a lot of stuff that I feel is very separate from my artwork. A designer is different from an artist in my opinion. Sure, there are a lot of similarities and overlapping of formalities, but I do consider them to be two different things. Some days I call myself a designer, some days an artist, and sometimes both. There are also those days where I am discouraged with all aspects of creating and am not proud to call myself either. And then sometimes I just call myself a creator. It is a blessing to be able to associate with whatever I wish to be at the moment.

I was recently scrolling through my Instagram feed and one of my favorite artists, Christine Spangsberg, posted a photo with a long caption regarding the word artist. She is a contemporary artist, currently living and working in Denmark, who focuses on drawing human faces with a single line. She claims that she also struggles with the word artist and labeling herself.

“I’ve in a way always been scared of it. I’ve always seen artists as more refined human beings than the rest of us. They were something special and I never liked this way of thinking that some are better than others. But it made me think a lot about the word artist- and I’ve come to the conclusion that if an artist is what people think I am, I can deal with it. It is not my job to title myself. In my own eyes I’m a girl who occasionally likes to express myself on paper. I’m not more or less worthy of anything than you are.”

I felt relieved when I read this. It was nice to be reminded that other artists, women, humans, individuals, whomever, also associate with similar feelings about labeling themselves creatively. It’s a confusing situation, and I never want to be locked into one specific title. I have no idea where my future will take me in both my personal and professional life, so I am open to being many things. I’ll always be creative and I’ll always be Brigitte. That’s for sure. As I am writing this today, I feel like an artist and a creator, and honestly, I’m proud of it.