Replying to LO25669 --
Andrew,
shooting from the lip as I transition among tasks (listening to a
middle-aged artist from Tijuana by the name of Carlos Santana)...
my mental model of what an artist is:
An artist is one who creates art. Art is an expression of creativity that
moves the heart (challenges the beliefs; creates new mental model
opportunities; etc) of the one who experiences it. Artists share some
things in common. Usually they've worked in a very disciplined way to
become artists...but they've almost always done this because of an
internal drive or need to express themselves through their art. And, when
they're engrossed in their art, they are the most joyful of people.
There are as many kinds of artists as there are media within the grasp of
the various forms of intelligence. Sister Teresa was an artist, then.
Michael Jordan, Pele and Ali are other examples of an artist. I collect
my Alfredo Arreguin prints because his art moves me. Ah...yes, Santana's
quite an artist too.
What can an artist become--is there another higher calling? To be human,
to connect with life. To better perceive or understand the world through
her art. To simply be whole.
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Just a side-note. I distinctly recall taking two friends (young men) with
me one weekend to Cologne (Koln). I was going to visit a girlfriend, and I
knew she had some friends who might like to meet them. We had a few hours
to while away after we arrived, before we were going to meet her and her
friends. I suggested that we go visit the art museum. Now, my friends were
about 18 to 19 years, and were absolutely NOT interested in visiting an art
museum. However, I prevailed (after all, I knew where we were meeting the
girls). The museum was having a Dutch masters exhibit that month. The
first room we walk into, we found ourselves face to face with a huge work by
Rembrandt. Our collective breath was taken away, as we stood and reveled in
the experience of this master's art. From that time, for the next 3+ hours,
we were absorbed into the museum's treasures and I had to finally drive them
out so we could meet our other friends.
After that, both of them told me how profoundly that experience affected
them...and I presume that it continues to affect them as it does me though
its' been some 31 years ago.
regards,
Doc
------------------
'Love is helping others to complete themselves'- Bill O'Brien (The Dance of
Change)
Richard Charles Holloway -
P.O. Box 2361, Olympia, WA 98507 USA Telephone 253.539.4014 or 206.568.7730
Thresholds <http://www.thresholds.com>
Meeting Masters <http://www.thresholds.com/meeting.html>
> I would be very pleased and grateful to harvest this community's varied
> 'mental models' of what an 'artist' is and what he might become.
--"Richard Charles Holloway" <learnshops@thresholds.com>
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