virtualDavis

You Are an Artist: digital collage

Inside you there’s an artist you don’t know about. ~ Rumi

Some days, like today days, it’s easy to forget, easy to slump downward, shoulders and spirit drifting grave-ward. The artist within cowers behind to-do lists and do too lists, hides his eyes beneath furrowed brows, and rolls his toes under in apology for being at all.

But it’s especially these days, these gloomy, confidence wilting lump in your throat days that you need to remember, need to affirm in guttural grunts or soaring anthem – shoulders back, chest extended, forehead stretched upward – that you are an artist. From that first wailing, ass smacking moment until your last triumphant gasp you are an artist. Always. Until you’re not. At all.

You are born an artist or you are not. And you stay an artist, dear, even if your voice is less of a fireworks. The artist is always there. ~ Maria Callas

Let there be fireworks. Or drifting smoke, fading booms and gunpowder perfume. Let there but art in your flash and in your fizzle. Let there be art.

Everything you do is art.

From the moment you wake up until the moment you sleep, you’re creating art…

Every single thing you do is art.

You cannot escape it…

You’re an artist. Life is your canvas…

What are you doing with your canvas? ~ Raam Dev

You are an artist. Always.

Related articles

• What’s Art For? (moabsophy.com)
• Mary Wade’s Essex Folk Art (essexonlakechamplain.com)

…you don’t need a hit to survive.  You don’t need to aim for the short head of best-sellerdom to escape the long tail. There is a place in the middle, that is not very far away from the tail, where you can at least make a living. That mid-way haven is called 1,000 True Fans. It is an alternate destination for an artist to aim for.

Young artists starting out in this digitally mediated world have another path other than stardom, a path made possible by the very technology that creates the long tail. Instead of trying to reach the narrow and unlikely peaks of platinum hits, bestseller blockbusters, and celebrity status, they can aim for direct connection with 1,000 True Fans. It’s a much saner destination to hope for. You make a living instead of a fortune. You are surrounded not by fad and fashionable infatuation, but by True Fans. And you are much more likely to actually arrive there. (The Technium)

Kevin Kelly dishes up a rambling, slightly repetitive, but insightful and inspiring reflection on the 1,000 True Fans concept. Are you an artist? A creator? Wondering how to survive without selling out or chasing superstardom? Great post followed by many thoughtful comments. Kudos to Kevin Kelly and a hat tip to Seth Godin for the link.