“What separates artists from ex-artists is that those who challenge their fears, continue; those who don’t, quit. Each step in the artmaking process puts that issue to the test.” Art and Fear
Crooked Fence
Monte Stevens
Retired. Having fun with photography. Journal daily. Meditate daily. Learning haiku/poetry. Have a love for fountain pens.
7 Comments
Earl
I’ve done a lot of fence building and repairing in my life — getting a perfectly straight fence requires a lot of work and attention to detail…but still an easier task then defining art and artists.
Monte Stevens
LOL So true, Earl.
Tom Dills
A fence doesn’t need to be straight to do it’s job, Monte! But a straight fence does tend to look better. 🙂
I think your quote could apply to just about anything. The way to get beyond the beginning means getting past those voices that tempt us to quit.
Monte Stevens
Very true, Tom. So many of us listen to those illusionary voices. As nature works on that fence it will continue to have posts leaning more and the rails will continue to bend. Changing.
Cedric Canard
I like your image Monte and I like the look of these kinds of fences. I like their imprecision and imperfections. I like how they represent the idea of a boundary without being too serious about it.
There’s no such thing as ex-artists. There’s artists and there’s people who once pretended they were artists.
Monte Stevens
Thanks, Cedric. I will accept that there are no ex-artitsts but people who pretended to be or failed to put in the required work. I’m not even sure how I define an artist. I see nature as an artist and love the work it does through all my senses. I wonder if maybe within everyone is the artist, in some cases multiple areas, who is yet to be acknowledge and nurtured. I question how good a photographer or artist I am, or will be, but I claim to be both.
This is probably a wonderful topic requiring hours of philosophical discussion at a coffee shop sipping on shots of espresso. 🙂 I bet we could get lots of people to show up and with their cameras, and brushes, and chisels, and typewriters. It would be a great time for me to learn!
Cedric Canard
As I see it, I would say that within everyone there is a creative ability (if we are indeed made in God’s image than that is what I understand it to mean: we are creators as is God), but that does not make us artists just as the ability to help or heal does not make us doctors. If that makes sense. I consider myself creative (to a point) but certainly not an artist and I consider myself a photographer only in the sense that I use a camera; in other words I am such only in a very limited sense.