What Makes An Artist?

This is a follow-up of sorts to my post about suffering artists.  Paddy Chayevsky once said, "I dislike bullshit, especially my own."  In the same interview, he talked about how he approached his writing as a job.  He also suggested that you should never trust an artist who talks about their art.  In other words, creating art makes you an artist - not being a pretentious ass who talks about art all the time.

Related to this, I recently struck up a friendship with a man who's a bit older than me.  If you were to go by the way he speaks and dresses, you'd probably guess that he's a retired truck driver or construction worker.  Maybe a guy who owned a bar.  But I guarantee that never in a million years would you guess that he's a retired concert pianist - but that's what he is.  And because he's a humble man, it's not something he volunteers.  I probably talked to him a few dozen times before he mentioned it to me.  And since I'm an artist, we were able to have an exciting conversation.  But it was all about the work of art - the practice, the approach, art versus commerce, that kind of thing.

So if you're serious about being an artist, take off the fucking beret, put it in your mouth, then get to work!  Who knows, maybe you'll create something amazing.  At the very least, you won't be an insufferable bore. :)

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