I was walking with my friend over to the gallery and the artist stopped and looked out the window at the sky. His eyes grew wide and he said, “That’s amazing. I hope that doesn’t rain!” I said, “You should see the clouds over the mountains.” He said, “Yeah right.” I said, “You’re right.” We both laughed and walked on.
Art is an important part of our culture and for the most part, you can find art all over the place. But what is art? For a long time, just about everyone assumed that art was just that – art. Now, there are multiple definitions of art, and each definition has its own unique rules. Artists are typically defined as the person who creates something out of a particular medium.
As a rule of thumb, artists are the first to tell you that they can’t be defined. Everyone knows that a painting isn’t just a picture, it’s made up of parts. Everything in a painting is made up of paint and paint is made up of all of the parts.
Well, I dont think that a single definition of art applies here. I dont think there are artists, or anyone who really knows what they are doing, who say that they can’t be defined. Just because you can’t be defined doesn’t mean that you aren’t art (I know, I know, but thats the point).
I think you are absolutely right. No one says that they cannot be defined. It just happens that most of us are unable to define what we are doing.
I think I have a solution, and I dont think it is the one you would like. I think you are making an assumption that all artists are defined by one thing. Sure, it is true that most of us are unable to do anything but define what we are doing. But I dont think that all artists are that different. In fact, it actually makes sense that they are very similar. We have the ability to define our own styles, our own techniques.
Like I said, I think you are making a lot of assumptions about what we are capable of. What I think is true is that most artists are not defined by one thing. The fact is that every artist has a style, a style that works for her. And that style gives her the ability to get her work out there and to get other artists in line with her style. It’s a very, very thin line.
The same thing goes for graphic artists. They are, in a sense, defined by a style. And that also means that each style is very distinct.
Artists often use words to describe their style. They use the term “flat” for a color palette, “noir” for a palette of colors, and so forth. This is often because the term used by the artist is what the audience uses to describe the artist. In the case of graphic artists, they use words to describe the colors in their styles. They often use words like “chameleon” and “shade change” and so forth.
Artist styles are also defined by their physical appearance. In the case of graphic artists, they often use words like black and white and so forth. They also sometimes wear the same clothes for decades, so a lot of graphic artists feel like they’ve acquired a bit of a uniform.