Are You an Artist?

[Timmy R]

I like improvisers who consider improv an artform. They fill me with hope. They are accountable to their credos. There's something concrete about them.
I don't actively dislike ones who don't, they just fill me with a kind of glazed despair which I'd rather avoid for personal reasons.

Down here, in Melbourne, another city that has zero impro theatres despite a population of three million people, you run the risk of being considered a wanker if you claim artistic ground as an improviser. In Oz, that word has genuine sting.

It's hard to claim you're an artist as an improviser, but the diffilculty in the process is ultimately, (I hope), rewarding. Impro is process, and anything that feeds it is for the good.
I think, do the work you want. Be clear about why. Make it a decision not a convenience.
Austin rocks for this.
I will also add I am an unabashed fan of P'Graph and concur furiously with everything Kaci posted.

Tim

[JediImprov]

Do you consider yourself an artist? Why or why not?

Yes, I do, but nowhere near an accomplished one. Not even close, but so much further then I was when I first began to explore this world some five years ago. For example, Ive done two short films as a filmmaker, both were rather ambitious in scope But I just COULD NOT see myself as a filmmaker, because although the cast and production values were very high, my skills as a storyteller were not good at all. I put out two good products, visually, that were flat in terms of tension and drama. So therefore, I should not call myself a filmmaker, right?

Now, Ive been in improv for just over a year. But still I struggled with, what the hell am I doing? Why do I keep spending all this money on classes? I dont make a living at this, so why am I do keep doing all this? The simple answers is, because I have to, I have no choice. Every ounce of my being craves all of the many benefits of putting myself out there. It was that day that I realized that I am, indeed, an artist. A great post that Brad Hawkins put out, really nailed that down for me even more:

“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story.

It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

I am nowhere near where I want to be as artist, I am still very much in the beginners stage with the two art forms that I am so passionate about, but I am slowly learning to get better at my craft and therefore, at the creations I put out there, as an improviser, as a filmmaker, as a poet, whatever. And that's enough for now.

What are some of your struggles with being an artist?

Not having enough time to study and practice my artistic passions, is a big one. Probably my biggest challenge is the fact that my work is VERY intense mentally, very hard at times. Tuning that out, finding and protecting my "creative space" has proven very hard. I have yet to find a way to switch between the two as timely and effectively as I would like.


Do you want to be (or are you) a commercial artist (someone who makes a living or some money, from their art)?

Although I suspect Im a lifer with regards to improv on some level, making films is my greatest passion, artistically. That said, I have no desire to make it in that world, in the traditional sense. I dont want a studio telling me what to do, kissing that kind of ass. I do hope that one day, my life would be primarily filled with artistic endeavors, whatever that may look like. And I do want to one day get good at being a storyteller, enough to be able to impact people in mass. But its about the process, the experience for me, not the money.



How do you reconcile being an artist with having a relationship/family?

I basically sleep around a lot, only participating in meaningless friendships and romantic entanglements. LOL Not!

My artistic life is very much apart of me, to love me is to accept and embrace that, or no thanks. Its that black and white for me. That said, the time demands, especially when I doing a film, can be very insane. So, like anything in life, I try my best to be attentive and appreciative when Im dating someone and my artistic hours are very demanding.

[jillybee72]

I call myself an artist because there are more grants for "artists" than for "lazy fucks who sit around playing Facebook Scrabble all fucking day."

[jillybee72]

But in other news:

I consider art the addition of something to the world for the sole purpose of making the world more beautiful-interesting-funny-joyful-poignant-compelling-awake-aware-alive. When I walk past a building where someone intricately carved a gargoyle, or a yard with a beautiful garden, I am so taken by those things and grateful that someone would do something with no other purpose but to make life richer. I want to be that in the world and do that for myself and others.

How do you reconcile being an artist with having a relationship/family?

I decided to be an improv monk a while ago, just sacrifice it for my art. And then I met this adorable Heiberg of yours and it turned out that it didn't even matter that I sacrificed for my art, I could have a relationship anyway. As for children, I have never had an interaction with a child that made me want one and it seems like the planet's going downhill, I wouldn't wish it upon anyone. Thus, childlessness was an active choice and not a sacrifice for my art.

[B. Tribe]

Basically, I listened to the advice of others for not being an actor or an artist, but did not give me no alternative, so wore black leather jackets and dog collars and combat boots while listening to punk bands of dark and smelly and generally miserable.

Stop mis-quoting me, robot!

[zyrain]

Here's how I see it.

There are three types of actions, producing, processing, and consuming. (a.k.a. creating, transformation, and destruction)

If you're producing, you're either creating something 'useful', or you're creating an 'experience'. By useful I mean some 'thing' used to accomplish another goal.

Engineers produce useful things
Artists produce experiences

An experience is at the end of the chain. Lots of tools go into making an experience, but you can't take an experience and do something with it. It can inspire, it can change emotions, but it can't be used to make anything.

So, the litmus test is simply: Are you creating an experience for someone (possibly even just yourself)? Then you're an artist.

[ratliff]

Lots of tools go into making an experience, but you can't take an experience and do something with it. It can inspire, it can change emotions, but it can't be used to make anything.

You take an experience and integrate it into your life, which is where paradigmatic change comes from, which is where all other innovation comes from. Experience creates tools just as much as tools create experience.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

Lots of tools go into making an experience, but you can't take an experience and do something with it. It can inspire, it can change emotions, but it can't be used to make anything.

You take an experience and integrate it into your life, which is where paradigmatic change comes from, which is where all other innovation comes from. Experience creates tools just as much as tools create experience.

and that's how you win a Best of Austin award, ladies and gentlemen!

[sara farr]

Chicken and the egg. Or is it the egg and the chicken.

Also, this. And this.

[zyrain]

Lots of tools go into making an experience, but you can't take an experience and do something with it. It can inspire, it can change emotions, but it can't be used to make anything.

You take an experience and integrate it into your life, which is where paradigmatic change comes from, which is where all other innovation comes from. Experience creates tools just as much as tools create experience.

You know, I really kind of love that I can count on Ratliff to always have a diametrically opposite, yet still completely valid, viewpoint from me on just about everything.

[DollarBill]

So "art" means different things to people. So "artist" means different things to people. So since everyone has their own definition of "artist" then only they can decide if they (or anyone) is an artist to them.

Personally I haven't decided yet. Recently I have felt like what I do on stage less art and more math. And in my opinion that is not a negative thing.

[scook]

Recently I have felt like what I do on stage less art and more math. And in my opinion that is not a negative thing.

You should talk to Miles Stroth about this.

[mpbrockman]

...what I do on stage less art and more math. And in my opinion that is not a negative thing.

Thank you. I always tell people that improvising music is doing math in real time. I don't think they ever quite believe me.

But I stand my comment from way back at the beginning that you aim for, and occasionally get, something greater than the sum (or product, or cosine...). That way be art.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

So "art" means different things to people. So "artist" means different things to people. So since everyone has their own definition of "artist" then only they can decide if they (or anyone) is an artist to them.

Personally I haven't decided yet. Recently I have felt like what I do on stage less art and more math. And in my opinion that is not a negative thing.

you're a marthist...

[mpbrockman]

...you're a marthist...

A communist with a speech impediment?