Actually, gentle reader, most artists can’t draw. AND (there is always an ‘And’): All artists can see. Artists can ‘see’ what’s right and what’s wrong. Artists can ‘see’ opportunities AND then select and respond to the ‘difference makers.’ Perhaps most importantly, artists can ‘see’ art.
‘Art’ is anything that is creative, passionate, and personal. Great art resonates deeply with the ‘viewer’ and with the ‘creator.’
What makes a person an artist? For example, in the past I have ‘painted by the numbers’ – as many folks have – and we are not artists. On the other hand, the Marx Brothers were artists – no doubt about it. So was the inventor of the iPod (the first of the great ‘i’s). There are, as we know, artists who work with clay, or marble, or paint and brush. There are other artists who work with numbers, or business models or customer conversations. Art is about intent and communication.
An artist is someone who uses courage (think: ‘heart’), insight, creativity and boldness to challenge – among others things – the status quo. AND the artist takes it personally.
That’s why Bob Dylan (see my post about Bob) is an artist. That’s why Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, is an artist. Max De Pree, author and past president of the Herman Miller Company is an artist.
I have had the privilege of spending time with Max De Pree. Max is an artist because he takes a stand, he takes his work (being an author or being a corporate leader) personally – and he invites challenge and disagreement (one of the ways he learns). His art is part of who he is – his art is his soul; when you receive his art you receive Max (anyone who has read his books knows of what I write). As an artist, Max is compelled to share his art (his wisdom, insights, learning, etc.). Max is compelled because artists are compelled to emerge and share their art.
Art is a gift – a personal gift – that changes both the recipient and the artist. For the artist, the medium does not matter – the intent does. Walt Whitman noted that ‘The gift is to the giver, and comes back to him. . .’ Art is a personal act – something one human does that creates change in another.
Given all of this I return to the question: ‘What is Art?’ [Tolstoy offered us one response in his book, ‘What is Art’] Art is not about the craft. If Shakespeare is art then certainly Jerry Seinfeld must be art too, right?
Is it art when Harvard scientist Jill Bolte Taylor holds us spellbound as she tells us about her near-fatal stroke? You Bet! [Check out her TED Talk: ‘My Stroke of Insight’]
This morning I leave us with Tolstoy’s words: “To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling – this is the activity of art.” [Tolstoy: ‘What is Art?’]