We were having a conversation the other day in which the nature of my involvement in and commitment to art came up, when my wife admitted that she just didn’t “get it”. She was able to see that it mattered very much to me, but was at a loss to understand why it should matter so much. I have to admit that my response was probably not terribly enlightening, and since then I have been wondering what a more adequate reply to her might look like. Frankly, I’m not sure that I have got very far.
The point from which to begin, I suppose, is the fact that art is much more than merely “interesting”, and when I start to probe in the recesses of my ideas and feelings, it emerges that art is actually a component of what art means to be me. It is a part of my self-definition, not only that i “do art” but that I am an artist. In that respect, whether or not I am an especially able artist is definitely a matter of secondary interest.
The roots of this state of affairs, I know, descend very deeply into my personal history. When I was no more than about six years old I can remember a particular occasion on which I was complemented by my mother and grandmother because of some rabbits I had drawn. So perhaps external inputs have been important in this development. Nevertheless, I am sure that the origins of my commitment to art are laid deeply within my personality.
Another metaphor occurs to me, in that identification with any art-form is probably similar to one’s commitment to a religious faith. The concept of “belief” (understood as some level of intellectual assent to beliefs) simply doesn’t touch it. In that respect I don’t think that anybody is ever persuaded to identify as a “believer”. By the same token I cannot taker seriously the possibility that one might ever be persuaded to be an artist. In fact, I am willing to give houseroom to the idea that there could even be an organic component to this. As long-term readers of this blog perhaps will remember, I take seriously the idea that being “artistic” is associated with the dominant hemisphere in the brain (right hemisphere dominance).
Whatever the case,