What makes A Great Artist?
In my desperately humble opinion, first and
foremost, sincerity, talent, passion and honesty are the main,
critical ingredients.
A true artist is a creative individual who is
sincere about their work expressed in any particular medium.
Add talent and we arrive at the term "gifted artist",
add philosopher and we begin to see a artist with the ability
to offer us new ideas and interesting perspectives and we
begin to see this person needs to be taken seriously. Add
struggle, either internal or external and we see an artist
with something to say. Add passion and this creative individual
is getting genuinely interesting. Add honesty and this individual
is aspiring to greatness. This individual is driven to express
their pain or their joy. In this individual's work we learn
a little more about ourselves. Add charisma and this individual
will reach an audience. Generally speaking, the stronger the
charisma the wider the audience.
But to achieve legendary or iconic status the
creative individual will have to prove themselves time and
time again by consistantly challenging themselves to aspire
to their potential and the challenge has to come from within.
An artist who achieves their potential has nowhere to go.
We as an audience may think, 'This is brilliant! This is genius!
This is the best work we can imagine this artist capable of'...
But a creative individual with the capacity for greatness
would never believe or even think that. The artist themselves
need to believe, imagine, conceive they are capable of so
much more. So, in my 'everso' humble opinion, a great artist
is always destined to be dissatisfied with their work, which
is perhaps where we get the expression, 'one must suffer for
one's art'. An artist has got to dig deep and expose themselves...
Yet, I've just woffled on about artists challenging
themselves and stretching themselves and then you look at
Elvis! The guy was just himself! Why should he find it so
easy to achieve greatness! Well, in my definition of "artist"
Elvis isn't an artist. He achieved greatness as a singer.
Singing is certainly a creative endeavour, but in my view
it doesn't constitute art. But that is just my view. Elivis
achieved greatness because he dripped with charisma. He was
soaked in the stuff in the womb. He was fermenting charisma!
He didn't develop in amniotic fluid, he was brewed in charisma.
Every pour of his being was saturated... Here I go again on
another rant about Elvis... But sometimes life just isn't
fair... Why should he have found it so so easy...
When it comes down to it, this page needs to
be collaborative. I've ranted out my opinion, now let's hear
yours... Below is a link to watch a Ladysmith Black Mamboza
video... Pure originality...
Tim Rees
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