Not everyone is an artist
19 September 2007 2 Comments
It struck me while biking this morning that my post yesterday needed a qualifiation:
Not everyone is an artist.
Regular readers will know that when I say this I’m not attempting to create an exclusive set of people, of art snobs; I’m not setting artists up as some kind of genius. Artists are human beings the same as the rest of humanity, with the same social and cultural responsibilities as the rest of humanity. I’ve more or less said all of this in some form or fashion before, but it is worth reiterating.
I’m not going to further attempt to define an artist here. For this I defer to my post on the definition of art. Suffice it that not everyone is a home builder. Not everyone is a statistician. Not everyone is a baseball player. Not everyone has the same gifts and talents.
Why is it then that the label of artist is applied so broadly in comparison to other lines of work?
True, not everyone is an artist. But everyone has the capacity for creativity in some fashion.
Absolutely. Engineering is equally as creative, as is troubleshooting for a mechanic or strategy for business. By no means is creativity limited to the arts.