Own Your Art!
[by Selina Maitreya]
“I’m not an artist, I’m a photographer.” If I hear this one more time I will (maybe) scream. Photography has long been defined as science and magic. The magic is the art, it’s the mystery. It’s the piece of your world that some call “intangible.” I call it very tangible. I can look at a photo and tell right away if a photographer is connected to their muse. When vision is present the muse is in.
The science of photography is critical. Having your technical skills perfected is key. But a photo is more then technology. Beyond the science is the magic. That’s the sweet spot. It’s what creates connection with a viewer. And it’s critical to your success. If you’re not hitched up to your creative muse, you most likely have a weak body of work.
No time put aside for quiet and contemplation? No space for ideas to come to visit.
No direct connect to your creative flow? No opportunity to offer clients what they are begging you for. They want your vision!
Clients cite your defined and refined visual product as the #1 reason photographers are hired for any specific assignment. Think about that. That is huge. (And for those of you who are saying “BULL dinky it’s budget they look for” remember this: fees aren’t usually housed on websites. Visuals are and the first place clients go to find talent are portals and photo websites.)
Most of the photographers I know want to perfect their art. They point to busy over committed lives as the reason for not being in the zone. The reality is that most of us are stressed by a life overflowing with activities. We are inundated with sound and noise, and we carry on picture within picture lives.
The good news, the truly terrific news is that once you say.”ENOUGH! I am an artist and I chose to live a life that supports my creativity” there are simple steps that will take you far. I invite you now to take a step that will cost you nothing but time. Stop 3 times a day and simply close your eyes and breathe deeply for 5 minutes. This practice will totally shift your life. If you feel this is too simple, commit to doing this for 2 weeks and see how many days you go before you’ve forgotten.
Selina Maitreya is a consultant to artists and the hostess of: Clarion Call 2013:Open to Creativity. Go to www.Open2creativity.com and sign up for a free 6 hour event that will get you off the hamster wheel and into connection with your Creative Muse!
4 Responses to 'Own Your Art!'
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I can appreciate your frustration with people who fail to fully own their creative drive in business.
But, with all due respect, Ms. Maitreya, if I hear one more person say, “I’m an artist” without displaying any clear understanding or belief about what it means to be an artist, I may scream right back.
Everyone wants to be considered an artist, usually because of the attached cachet and the accompanying inviolability of one’s creative work.
Mere design can be questioned endlessly by clients, mere photography can be Photoshopped to death, but ART can’t be touched.
I’ve spent years teaching at a well-regarded art & design college (Univ. of Cincinnati), and the question regarding what constitutes art is a common debate in academic circles.
It means many things to many people and nobody has a singular, definitive grasp of art. But, for conversation’s sake, and disclaiming the gross generalizations:
ART is produced to provoke questions while DESIGN is produced to answer them.
And to equate all photography with art is a grave mistake. Frankly, most photographic work that ASMP members produce to pay the bills falls quite firmly on the design side of that opposition.
Archaeologists make photographs to document excavations, but we would rarely, if ever, call the resulting images Art, nor the archaeologists Artists.
I personally focus on architectural photography. And I can assure you that when I’m making the occasional (but inevitable) image of an electrical panel for one of the building’s subcontractors so they can use it to market their work, I’m not thinking, “How, Muse, can I elevate this image to Art?” Nor should I. I don’t need artist status to be creative. The work usually just is what it is, and that’s OK.
Why don’t we call a spade a spade and stop appropriating the “A” word so freely to describe creative acts of any kind, regardless of their cultural function or value?
I guarantee there is an Artist or two who would say Amen to that.
I am not an artist. (Ok go ahead scream – I’ll wait – there that’s better, right?) I am a commercial visual content creator. I produce images and motion work, that my clients pay me for.
If I hear the word artist, and I agree with Darrin here, I think of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Ansel Adams, … not Pascal Depuhl. They had to create. Their soul forced them to. The couldn’t live any other way. Comparing myself to them, I am not an artist.
However, I do believe that it is imperative to listen to that quiet little voice in your head, that you at first dismiss as being out of it’s little mind, because it is screaming for you to push yourself, to not just be a commercial shooter, to go out on a limb creatively, to get as far out of your comfort zone as possible.
Because there, far away from the comfort of the tree trunk, where the limb gets so thin you think it’s gonna snap. Right there, that’s where art lies. And only when I am standing there, waiting for the branch to snap am I an artist.
http://blog.depuhl.com/2012/02/why-you-must-be-willing-to-fall-out-of-a-tree-to-stay-creative/
I love this Selina. Thank you!
You are most welcomed John. A highly important topic to us all!Currently in Bogota at Fotoenlace lecturing to photographers in South America about this very topic.
Much interest.