Am I an Artist?

Happy Heart

Hanging out in my art studio watching the birds fly outside the window day dreaming: I wondered Am I an artist?  I look at my paintings and feel joy as I remember what the painting represents to me. I think of driving down the gravel road in the middle of the desert and I smile at the beauty.  The shadow I see by the tawny grass.  The ridged side of the mountain walls in the winter sun.  I definitely think I have the soul of an artist, I see beauty in almost everything.  Whether it is a representative landscape or an abstract energy painting I enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoy painting them. I feel like an artist, although I do not earn a living as one I have sold paintings.  It is more a way of expressing myself and the beauty all around me.  Like writing poetry used to be, for now I paint. 




Dictionary.com Definition of artist

noun

Condor Flying

1. a person who produces works in any of the arts that are primarily subject to aesthetic criteria.

2. a person who practices one of the fine arts, especially a painter or sculptor.

3. a person whose trade or profession requires a knowledge of design, drawing, painting, etc.:

a commercial artist.

4. a person who works in one of the performing arts, as an actor, musician, or singer; a public performer:

a mime artist; an artist of the dance.

5. a person whose work exhibits exceptional skill.

6. a person who is expert at trickery or deceit:

He's an artist with cards.

7. Obsolete. an artisan.

I guess I could fall into one of those categories to be considered an artist.  What really matters however is how I define myself.  I say yes, I am an artist.  But that is only one of the many things that I do.  I am also a poet as I have written and published poetry.  So than the question really is not, Am I an artist/_______?  It is that I am Linda.  A spiritual being in a human body living on planet Earth  and I do many things, one of them being painting, creating art! 

Dancing Sycamore by Linda G

The I am question is always an interesting one.  We do many things and in our culture we than label ourselves based on those things that we do.  But really those labels are not who we are, they are what we do.  I am an artist, I am a driver, I am a manager, I am a daughter, I am a sister, I am a friend, I am a lover, I am a wife, I am . . . "I am that I am."

If you are ever wondering yourself who and what you are remember you do many different things, but you are you no matter what you are doing.

In love and gratitude,
Linda G