DAY 5

“what does it mean to be an artist”

Today we had a lecture about becoming a fine artist or “visual artist”. Ive never put much thought about after schooling and I think this lecture really gave me an exiting prospect of becoming an artist isn’t impossible (but its ruddy hard to make money). Things that cropped up that I’ve never realized like as soon as you finish the course ur out of the bubble and have to try and almost wiggle your self back in, storage and getting funding (things as simple as paints and pencils cost let along 3-d materials). But I like to think I’m pretty divers so for putting on events it could become cheaper because I can design leaflets, websites, print and distribute my self or at least I have experience in it. I am happy to learn that you don’t stop learning and progressing in your art.

Another thing of entering as much as competitions as I can and not selling art if its winning comps because it is publicity is a vital point one that I need to remember and carry out (www.artquest.com)  even a small sketchy painting was winning comps so keep everything.

Something that I liked about the speaker is the way she described what an artist is through a piece called re breather. A piece of dodgy diving equipment usually home made with risk of acid going in ur mouth and sounding very tricky to use. She told us that it is crucial don’t go beyond your endurance. In diving terms you can drown in art you can become stale so knowing when to stop. There is a strong collaboration between machine and people today in art but as the weeks gone on I’ve realized art is a language from a pencil stroke to the way you describe to the way people see it. everything has to work to be successful so don’t cut corners. Another way she described being an artist was a spider plant (having to be resilient and able to spread) which I think I liked more than the re breather and also kind of links with this idea of growth being trapped by boxes that I’ve been playing with.

Websites mentioned

Backlane.org

Creativeskills.co.uk