To be, or not to be, an artist... THAT is the question!

  A friend that I hold dear, Robin, once told me that what she does isn't art. This, after I told her what a beautiful gift she had sent me- it was a picture of a horse, sculpted in folded paper. For me, I cannot even imagine how to make something like it. Yet, she doesn't consider herself an artist.... What?!
  This is quite an undertaking, this post... It is a very in depth sort of subject, yet it is so difficult to put into words or even to have people absorb.
  When you take something that has been scrutinized for literal centuries, or since the beginning, and still has negative connotations as the core societal understanding, it is nearly impossible to rearrange people's individual associations.
  We've all shrugged off the drunken or doped up artist, as if that were the norm. I'm ashamed to say that even I am guilty of that social faux pas. When you think of successful, you think of Mr. Bigwig in his big city office, somewhere, not of lowly artist in a down home setting with their easel in the back forty (acreage talk).
  You'd be amazed at how difficult it is to get an artist to admit they are an artist, sometimes. I've had speeches, even with a crowd full of nothing but artists, and they nervously shuffled around when I asked them to proclaim, to everyone, that it's their profession. Individuals have also told me that it is impossible to even tell their own family members. It's shocking.
  So, in lieu of wasting your precious reading time, I won't try to convince you that you should be proud to be an artist. I will tell you that you should be, LOL.
  Commercial art and technology are, fortunately, beginning to change that wicked societal ignorance. It may be long after I am gone that I'll see the remedy, but it is a welcome change.
  If you have questions as to whether or not you are an artist, or if you want to be one: You can look it up in a dictionary, find whatever answer suits your brain on the Internet, or just decide for yourself.
  My high horse bucks me off here, when I tell you that I've only been able to call myself an artist for about the past six or seven years. It's a long road, hang in there baby!
  

Acrylic, Oil, and other greasy stuff

  Whether it's acrylic, oil, watercolor, or play-doh, you have many choices in which media you prefer.
I am often asked, "Why acrylics?"
  The answer is not as simple as it may seem, when I answer, "I just like them."
Acrylics get a bad rap, on so many levels. Honestly, it is just like any new thing that is scrutinized for the simple fact of being new. They've only been commercially available since the 1950's (debatable).
  Part of their allure, for me, is the fact that people find them such a topic of debate. I just love the crap out of that! Acrylic paint turns my crank in many ways, but mainly the workability and the flexibility (there are tons of mediums on the market) keep me interested.
  Each media is just as fulfilling as the next, depending on the individual artist. It is up to you to determine which is your preferred choice. Just as your style progresses and evolves, so will your understanding that the rules people set out, mean very little, in the way of the artistic reality.
  To me, artistic reality is finding what is real for me, not everyone else. My paths have been urged into many paths, I've heard tons of advice and pursued knowledge like crazy, and only one thing remains steadfast; I take good and bad from each experience and it manifests into the growth of my own artistic style, use, and voice. My paintings turn out how I paint them; That, is my artistic reality.
  Getting your hands and head dirtied by the masses of out-flux out there, is just the beginning. You'll twist and turn with the advice, the lessons, the experiences, and learn to just do what it is you enjoy and find fulfilling.
Find yourself an art kit (I've found some really cheap and fascinating ones at garage sales) that has several media, mess around with them in the way you want to, see which one(s) intrigue you. Learn more about it's options, like additives and mediums, and just enjoy.
Play, go ahead... I'm waiting to see what it is you have to share with me.

Paint-a-holic

  When painting is brought up, my mind instantly wanders to that semi-catatonic state of feeling that painting feeling, right in that moment. It's a combination of the preparation (and anticipation) that goes into the next painting, as much as it is self medicating with my life's blood.
   It's sort of like an addiction, only worse; This one, you cannot let go or quit. The good thing about it is, for one, it is legal, LOL. The other good thing is that you don't have to do it to feel it!
  Painting is something that many, many artists try, at least once. While many of them move on to other media, few of us hang in there and find that it is, in fact, our grounding and has permanency.
  In my painting, it has survived many trials and tribulations, but no matter how long it is between paintings and explorations, I always come back to it.
  There is an acrylic that I'm working on, right now, even though I haven't touched it since last Summer. I can talk to you all day long about how the rules say you have to paint every day and do so many paintings per day to be a real artist. BAH! To be a real artist, you just have to have it in your blood, that your heart would stop pounding without it. There truly aren't any rules and I dare you to scoff in the faces of those that tell you there are.
   Start with guidelines to help educate your fixation, learn and grow into your own artistic self, then set your own reality in this amazing realm. Go ahead, just do art. Just do what it is you do.
Love outward.

I'm down for a few days while I work out the quirks, please bare with me. :)