A couple days ago, my friends and I have an interesting
discussion about the definition of artist. When we talked in Indonesia context,
artist is miss-conceptually merely associated with celebrity that appear on TV,
even for only one or two soap opera or on the other scenario, artist is the one
who live in freedom with their art, little bit weird, and different.
Whereas artist, for
me, means whoever do art; paint, dance, sing, etc. My friend picked a popular
talent show as an example. The contestants who sing on that show do not only a professional
singer. They come from various back ground. They can be businessman, they can
be teacher, they can be policeman, they can be retiree, and they can be anything.
But they do sing, so they are artists too.
This drawing depicted a bamboo music group in CENTRAL SULAWESI.
They play various bamboo instruments in a local festival. The group members are
common people. They are housewife, they do daily stuffs, the men are probably
farmers, workers, etc. They are not professional music player but they do art.
For me, they are artist too.
I mean, as Indonesian, we live with art surround us. I am
pretty sure we have the art blood inside each of us and it is a wonderful if we
can explore and develop this gift. It is not hard at all. I just remember many
friends start to learn SAMAN (Acehnese Dance) here in Melbourne. In the
beginning they are afraid that it would be hard to learn. But BOOM!! They can dance.
They involved in art.
However, the most important thing is doing art will bring us
happiness. It makes our heart full of beauty and positivity. It is a fun
recreation. So, I suggest that everyone should try some art and be an artist.
In French language, we have various words and expressions to express all the different meanings you are talking about. I would say it makes all the subtle differences quite clear:
ReplyDelete- an artist: is someone who regularly practises art and, most important, creates (new forms, new expressions...). An artist is, or has to be a creator
- an artisan (= a craftman): someone who practises an art as a regular activity (may be a job), but they do not invent new forms, they just repeat what has been done before them
- having an artistic activity: someone who sometimes practise an art (dance, music...) as a recreation, from time to time, as a hobby / during spare time.
But in the end, you're finally right: the most important is to express onseself, feel beauty and share with others. Meaning I'd like to go back to Aceh so that we could dance the Saman dance and express love towards the world God has given us! ;)
All the best