HOW TO BE AN ARTIST
You do not need an art degree from an Art School to prove you're an artist. You do not need approval from art journals, magazines, galleries, or art curators to tell you, or assure you, that you're a great artist. Even those people and institutions have a hand or two in social and professional politics. The art school is a business. The teacher teaching you art, is most likely an unknown artist that didn't make it too far - so who are they to judge your art? Those magazines that you look up to and read, keep covering the same artists over and over again - so who are they to call themselves established and credible connoisseurs of art? There are millions of phenomenal artists in the world and they keep focusing on the same ones. Those magazines should not be acting as credible spokesmen for the art field, if they are so limited in scope and reach -- and if they cannot identify with all the art that exists outside their closed and narrow gates.
Whenever a person translates the language or vision of their soul onto paper or canvas, or if even food, they are AN ARTIST. I have seen firsthand that there is a buyer for every painting. And it is true when they say BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER. For every creation you manifest, there will be another soul out there that can identify with the image or song you have created. For every artist on the west coast, I can find an artist in the Ukraine, Croatia, or Japan that can outdo them. For every artist out of France, I can find one out of the UK, New York, or Italy that can outdo them. For every artist in Juxtapoz Magazine, I can find 5 in the world that can outdo every person published in that magazine. Proven.
True talent is HUMBLE. Every true artist knows that there is someone better than he or she somewhere out there in the world. There are no two Leonardo Da Vincis, but I'm positive there was another artist greater than he at the time -- hidden somewhere in the cracks of the world, or in a basement. Do not let people measure your art. Art has no boundaries, no limitations, no form, no standards and there is no right or wrong way to manifest the language of your soul. Those that do set limits and standards, are not artists and have no business being a voice in the art world.
Create to share. Create to sell. Create to excel. Never create to have your art measured, or to impress people that call themselves art judges -- or art editors. Every soul has a style of its own, as no two souls were created alike - and no two homes are decorated alike. Those that judge art do so according to their own style preference, not based on your talent. If someone rejects your art, let it be known that they are rejecting only your style. It should not mean anything to you. Do not change your voice or style for anybody.
That same person that says 'no' to you, will go and award an elephant for creating a masterpiece -- only because they can identify with its style. Or, because the owner of that elephant buys ad space in their magazine or donates to their institution. The greatest crime an artist can do, is to change their voice to suit another. Or, imitate another artist. After all, you are still ignoring your own voice.
Create without fear and listen only to the inner voice of your soul. Only then will you create a masterpiece that defines you and only you. CREATE for YOU! Only then...will YOU become ART.
Suzy Kassem
