Everybody

Is an Artist.

So don't go round thinking that makes you something special.

So you want to be an artist? Well, even if you don't you are. Everyone's an artist. That's one thing I learned and it took me this long. I used to shudder in the art schools when all these dudes, the chicks mostly, start coming up with some kind of attitude like they've arrived on the set, you know? They come around with their boutique I'm-so-cool costumes (these days it's sort of jet black Halloween costumes from some Dracula movie or something) like becoming an artist automatically elevates them to some kind of higher plane and they get into a social thing with all their cliques and gossip groups looking down on the others and so on and so forth.

FORGET IT. If that's you, you've chosen the wrong line of work. Because everybody's an artist. You have done nothing more with your decision than acknowledge that you are just an average walkin' around scratching human being just like all the rest of us on the bottom floor, namely good old planet Earth. See that little guy over there in the corner or that girl the in-crowd seems to ignore, they're probably the ones that will blossom into truly great artists, the ones that get away with doing extraordinary things in art. Listen, you don't need popularity. The minute you get into that, you'll be wasting all your time playing a role.

So forget it. If you become truly great, you'll be unique of necessity. So there will be no one else to compare yourself to. What's wrong with being just you. What a relief. Nothing to prove. Nobody you feel stressed to impress. You can respect others just because of their humanity, the intrinsic greatness each person has that's truly unique. So if you want prestige get out of art and get into something that's purely illusionary and just a hustle like rocknroll or bestsellers or some kind of big business that hands out pink slips and cooks the books.

Now there are different kinds of artists. Some can actually make a picture of something they've remembered, while others can make all kinds of designs. But if you take every human being on the face of the earth and plunk them down at the front of an easel, after a bit of help, they can do artwork and produce a permanent picture of something that actually looks like what they are trying to depict.

So, whoever you are, let's get started. There is one mystery to art and that is that we need it desperately. There are reasons why we can explain and other reasons why we can't explain. The latter is why we are in a crisis to this day.

People don't understand the incredible need for art so they ignore it to their peril. It has an enriching uplifting quality that brings us to a better world. It increases the faculties and enlarges the intellectual capability of the individual. So maybe you can't afford to buy a great work of art. Besides, most of the greatest art is already out of private hands in museums by now.

But you can have art on your walls, which you so desperately need. And who knows if you do or don't have that spark within you that is truly rare: that talent to be a truly great artist -- a Michelangelo or a Rembrandt of our time. Right now you might be a decent cashier, or a good shoe salesman, a factory worker, a student, a -- whatever. But you could be a great artist.

This is one of the reasons why we aren't producing outstanding museum class artists to this day. The art schools are churning out artists, perhaps many decent ones. But the great ones have slipped through the cracks in the United States. We are thought of abroad as a country incapable of classical art. Not that American art isn't appreciated, it just is thought of as progressive stuff but not truly great.

This is because of, mainly, a mercenary form of mercantilism, known of in nineteenth century France as the Bourgeoisie. We used the term when I was in school and the School of Visual Arts, then on East Twenty-Third Street in Lower Manhattan in New York City. We knew of the barrier between artists and the system. But unfortunately the Communists and then the Hippies cheapened the term and now we have to find another.

Till then let's forget the system and get on with the work of the artist, shall we? You may even make some money at it. At least you'll have some real and live art for your own walls and enrichment for yourself and those who visit. It may even help to get rid of some crap-heads that would have done you no good anyway.

Enough for introductions. The basic thing I wanted to say is that, no matter who you are, you can do it. You can be an artist. So you want to be an artist, eh? Too late. You already are. So let's proceed.

Next page, if you will, Art School 003.

Click here to return to "Human Beings Reach Plateau".

Click on any of the following to go there:

The Paul Hall art home page

The Art School home page

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No wonder most people don't like art. They don't eat right either. Pretty stupid, eh?

http://www.paulhallart.com is created and authored by Paul A. L. Hall (I had to do the whole thing myself).

Whether you like it or not, you need art. Too bad. Get over it. Life goes on.

The hardest part is standing up in all those museums and galleries. My trick was to sit down on those big seats they bung in the middle of the rooms till I got in shape for it.

email Paul and all at paulandall@paulhallart.com (it's the dot com before the storm).

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