So, who or what is a creative artist?
July 7, 2007
Well first of all, it’s not “creative artist.” It’s Creative Artist.
Why is it capitalized? Because it’s a profession, and it’s a title, and it’s an important defining characteristic that separates artist from Creative Artist.
Secondly, an artist is not a Creative Artist until they have demonstrated the criteria and behaviour of a Creative Artist. A Creative Artist is deeply committed to the welfare and well-being of humanity on every level, to such a degree that they will suffer any amount of the crap that passes for civilized society on this once beautiful planet we’ve trashed, to get the work out. Creative Artists know that most people in this “civilized society” have a singular lack of respect for and recognition of those who speak the truth to the rest of us.
Humans are not as stupid as I sometimes say they are. However, sometimes they are so incredibly stupid I don’t consider them—on that subject or in that moment—to be human at all. They are, in a word, “moroffs” - on account of they are “more off” than on. Creative Artists are not stupid people. Oh, they are prone to mistake, just as any human being is, and we have our moments of stupidity, but when you take an overall look at the scope of our lives, you’ll find that there is a deep commitment to something more than just ourselves and the mistakes are not necessarily mistakes but a consequence of principle applied (Yes, I know this idea is quite foreign to most people in this society at this time).
The term artist has become overused, and it is now meaningless. “Everybody is an artist” and “everything is art” are expressions bandied about. Such phrases speak to the mediocrity mentioned by Marcelle La Cour in her article Quality & Compromise; these phrases support mediocrity, and at the same time they undermine the standards of quality that are a reflection of the strength and regard in which we hold our values and our principles.
Creative Artists are people of principle. And there is a lot more to say about them than what I’m going to put here in this brief introduction to the concept. You will find out more about who and what is a Creative Artist when you look to A Creative Artist Enhances Society, a book I spent 5 years writing, countless more considering (who measures time when it comes to matters of the mind? Creative Artist’s don’t, that’s for sure!), and 2006 having it edited and prepared for publication. When it’s ready for release it will be announced here in the Free Articulator, because this is the place where Creative Artists release their works to the public for the first time.
What principles do Creative Artists embrace and espouse? Those that serve humanity best. This sometimes puts Creative Artists in positions where they appear to be, by the standards of the day and society in which they live—depending on the nature of that society—in an invidious position with regard to the principles that such a society holds close and dear to itself. Those that define it in reality, if not in ideal.
A Creative Artist’s first dedication is to their work. Not just any work, but the works that will best serve humanity. These are works to which the Creative Artist has committed themselves, and which they may spend a great deal of time and effort creating, polishing and preparing, for the business of creating precision effects is an exacting one.
Engaged in such endeavor, the Creative Artist has little thought of themselves, it’s the things that are being created and the effect they are intended to have that make the Creative Artist that oddball in a garret somewhere removed from society, or so one may think. In fact, such a Creative Artist is not removed from society at all, but probably more intimately involved with it than any who move through that society are ever actually involved.
The way the idea of the artist being removed from society is stated is no longer respectful or mindful of why this is, or what it really means. It has become a mythology that obscures the reality of what is occurring when it comes to creativity and you won’t find us doing any of that in the Free Articulator. (Okay, well maybe a little, occasionally; we are given to indulgence from time to time, and we do so like to throw a curve ball every now and then).
Creative Artists are not perfect people. They are however, perfectly principled people. What do I mean by this concept? I mean: that the principles they embrace and espouse are perfectly aligned to what they are endeavoring to achieve. Nobody else (well, few people) will see this until the work is ready and delivered and has had time to create its effect.
The book, the story, the song, the tuneback, the image, moving or still, is not the product, you see? These are the things that create the product, and the product is an effect upon the recipient of the work. There is more to say about this and it won’t be said here, now. But later, so stick with us, because what you are going to read here in the Free Articulator from its contributors and others is going to make you think, and feel, differently than you have before.
People talk about open minds…well we are the openers, we Creative Artists. We open them up, only we don’t stop there, we open hearts and spirits and we go into the dark places where you fear to tread yourself and once we’re there we strike a light, so you can see what’s going on. And that my friends, is what we’re all about. You. It’s not about us. As Creative Artists, it’s all about you.
A Creative Artist is first of all a highly skilled, articulate communicator. A free articulator, in fact. Their ability in and with communication is not confined to one medium or channel of communication. Nor is it confined to a particular style, though there are surely some unifying characteristics that enable identification and branding; though some are masters at emulation, as they should be.
Creative Artists always have more than one creative discipline and medium in which they work. Creative Artists span the gamut of all realities, we have to: reality is actually where we work all the time, we examine, explore all kinds and types of realities. And then we join them together to create new realities. We aspire to and attain the giddy heights of inspired creation and then plummet into the realms of the gutter the next.
None of this is who we are. All of it is who we are. But we are beyond being defined by a simple categorical perspective and endeavoring to define us in such a narrow way is to deny the full rich experience of the reality of who we really are. You see, when we aspire to and attain those giddy heights, and plummet the next to the depths of human depravity; we never lose sight of who we really are.
Who is a Creative Artist? You’ll know them when you experience their work and get to know the way they think about life, the universe, and everything. Artists don’t belong here. Can’t survive here. The world of the Creative Artist is not the world of the artist. A Creative Artist creates original intellectual property that has a powerful constructive effect on those for whom it is intended. Their work is not always pretty, or palatable, but it works at a level that produces constructive change. Those who fear change, will of course, fear the Creative Artist.
The Creative Artists Declaration of Creative Independence is a declaration of principles. This is not our first set of principles, it is simply us saying we have no wish to be a part of a system we no longer trust. We are developing a new system, one we can trust. This is what we mean when we say principles figure very large in what defines a Creative Artist.
But artists are 20th Century. Creative Artists are 21st Century. And we are an entirely different type of person than what you are used to.
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