Are You an Artist?

[arthursimone]

quality

oh noes!!!

[kaci_beeler]

Of course I'm an artist. Who isn't?

(Besides Kareem.)

My dad, my mom, my brothers, my sister, a bunch of people I went to high school with, a bunch of people I went to college with, a lot of people I meet everyday, a lot of people who come to our improv shows...

But I'm also not a mother, lawyer, peace officer, art historian, politician, activist, waiter, tree hugger, musician, singer, doctor...

[mpbrockman]

uh, i think you mean semantics. is that a for real typo?

nope. semiotics. study of signs and symbols.

Just to make this sound sillier. Umberto Eco is a professor of Semiotics... at the University of Bologna.

For real.

[Ryan Hill]

And after semiotics, epistemology...

[hujhax]

And after semiotics, epistemology...

*misreads as 'episiotomy', shudders*



--
peter rogers @ home | http://hujhax.livejournal.com

If you flail around madly enough, sooner or later you hit the piñata.
      -- Alex Epstein

[B. Tribe]

...then nothing for a long time...

I'd like to hear about that sometime...

Basically I listened to other peoples advice about not being an actor or an artist, but I wasn't given any alternatives, so I wore black leather jackets and dog collars and combat boots while listening to obscure punk bands and being generally smelly and miserable.

You need to find a girlfriend who is also an artist.

Done it. Helped a bit.

[KathyRose]

It seems to me... an artist is someone who is skilled in some form of art. Improv is certainly a performance art. So to me, the question is: how skilled do you need to be before you'd be considered an artist in the field?

One easy test is whether or not people are buying tickets to specifically see you (or your troupe) perform - i.e. whether or not you have a following. Shows that people attend out of curiosity, where you just happen to be on the bill, don't count. If your work is the reason why the audience is there, you're an artist.

This criteria bypasses any judgement of the work product itself. If you take a dump on stage, but people are consistently willing to pay to see you do it... viola! you're an artist. Albeit, a dump artist.

[bradisntclever]

If you take a dump on stage, but people are consistently willing to pay to see you do it... viola! you're an artist.

[TexasImprovMassacre]

art is in the eye of the beholder

[Marc Majcher]

Of course I'm an artist. Who isn't?

My dad, my mom, my brothers, my sister, a bunch of people I went to high school with, a bunch of people I went to college with, a lot of people I meet everyday, a lot of people who come to our improv shows...

Because they decided they're not, or because someone else did? Or maybe because they decided that they're not because someone else told them they weren't?

[beardedlamb]

Basically I listened to other peoples advice about not being an actor or an artist, but I wasn't given any alternatives, so I wore black leather jackets and dog collars and combat boots while listening to obscure punk bands and being generally smelly and miserable.

FORMAT!

called it.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

Of course I'm an artist. Who isn't?

My dad, my mom, my brothers, my sister, a bunch of people I went to high school with, a bunch of people I went to college with, a lot of people I meet everyday, a lot of people who come to our improv shows...

Because they decided they're not, or because someone else did? Or maybe because they decided that they're not because someone else told them they weren't?

ART FIGHT! ART FIGHT! ART FIGHT!

[valetoile]

It seems to me... an artist is someone who is skilled in some form of art. Improv is certainly a performance art. So to me, the question is: how skilled do you need to be before you'd be considered an artist in the field?

One easy test is whether or not people are buying tickets to specifically see you (or your troupe) perform - i.e. whether or not you have a following. Shows that people attend out of curiosity, where you just happen to be on the bill, don't count. If your work is the reason why the audience is there, you're an artist.

This criteria bypasses any judgement of the work product itself. If you take a dump on stage, but people are consistently willing to pay to see you do it... viola! you're an artist. Albeit, a dump artist.

Is this is joke? It is right? Cause if not, I call complete and utter bullshit.

[Spots]

There were a few projects that weren't exactly popular but caused a lot of controversy. So I will occasionally say, "It's not art until somebody is offended."


But's all I got to say. I respectfully bow out of this conversation. Keep in mind I love you all.

[kristin]

If I had a survey about my life in front of me that said:
Are you an artist? [yes] [no]
I would choose yes.

If the survey had a list of attributes for me to choose among to describe myself, and artist was the closest thing to improviser/performer on the list, it would probably be one of the words I selected.

If the survey had a free text area asking me to write a paragraph to define who I am, I probably wouldn't use the word "artist" in it, but I would certainly be talking about improv.

Does that help?