What makes you a good artist?

This was one line from an art exhibition opening I was at today.



Joe Tilson - The five senses (detail) (1968-1969)

I just realized today that it's ART week in my city (Budapest) and 2 hours later I was at a special workshop where we reflected the art we saw and also later made a drawing of a great memory from a time when we were in nature. I have not been to such thing and it was great.

The question was at the next event and the curator told the story, that the artist kept asking that question and also asked if she is a good artist or not and what is the measure for that. In the end she (the artist) came up with the answer the she is a good one, because she is honest.

I like that answer, it leaves plenty of room and also it does not require any special skills or schools, it aligns perfectly with the idea I have nowadays - that everyone is an artist. And can be and should be able to call themselves that.

Somehow this idea that generally you need a permission from someone to call yourself an artist reminds me of the educational system (which is stuck somewhere at the 70s here in Hungary) which seemingly has the objective to uniform and to bring up citizens who will obey and never question authorities.

Beáta Szabó (2018)

If your neighbor sees your decoration and calls you an artist, are you? Or if you refuse to show your writing, but you do write, are you an artist? The little boy who does nothing but blue circles on a paper? The chef who loves shapes and plating? The car mechanic?

We also arrive to the question of what is art? I recently helped a friend to translate and this guy: T. J. Demos, who is a famous art critique dragged a lot of wonderful artist and art pieces (like Agnes Denes who grew (!) a wheat field close to New York or Hans Haacke who purified water and exhibited it in a huge tank with goldfish), but just LOVED the one who had this performance of throwing empty picture frames into a river. Ummm, ok?

Endre Tót - My unpainted canvas VI. (1971)

Now I want to write about how art and religion has similarities in a sense that the big churches and the priest can have a very different take on things versus when you are just somewhere having a direct relationship with God. So the religion itself and the church. Art galleries run businesses and the art market can be difficult to understand. The market value of a piece is determined by them and lots of factors, but the real (personal) value of a piece often can not be quantified or measured even. Art can be very personal and you don't need permission to make it. (Somewhat related to the topic, the book: Amanda Palmer - The Art of Asking, I highly recommend it!)

Gábor Kerekes - Airship 1. (2013)

The reason I'm writing this is because I will be honest. I got scared of this whole steemit thing. It's scary to put anything out there. I have never wrote a single choose your own adventure style story before. I will be bad at the beginning. Noone is great when they start something. And this first bit, this bit where I am bad and I will make mistakes and it will not be pretty and perfect from the beginning - scares me. I will be judged. (By random people on the internet? Why does it matter, why should it matter? Human nature I guess...) And again back to the school system, which does not glorify mistakes, the opposite: they drag you down and give bad grades and also can shame you by telling the whole class how bad you did something. You don't need to try new things and fail, just keep your head down and FOLLOW THE RULES.

(inside in the Liszt Ferenc Zeneakadémia, Budapest)

And there are some, just suggestions of course here on steemit. Like: write a post everyday! Be consistent! Find your community! Do this, do that. So many suggestions for newbies. And all seem to aim to help you to: get the money. Which is, you know, understandable. Totally valid, this platform can create great opportunities. I just don't really want to go down that road. I love the gamification element in it and I love how I can connect with random people on the internet who I might have a lot or none in common. But just because there might be better money opportunities in writing about cryptocurrencies or posting memes every day, I'm not going to do that, because it doesn't interest me, therefore not sustainable if the long run.

Lajos Kassák - Independent Life (1966)

So what is my aim here?
I don't know. Should I have an aim? I think I would like to share. Some thoughts, some good books I read, some cool sites or people I like. Share some of my writings, videos, art, share the struggles and glories of trying to became a better writer, artist, person. Also connect and learn from people on this platform.

(I took the pictures)

((this post has been saved by steemit, I wrote it in April. I've not published it, because of reasons? I guess I got scared? I wanted to polish it more? I will write a next post, but I don't know if you can work in more than 1 post at the same time, and also, I wrote all this, I might as well add pictures and publish it. Thanks for reading!))

Novotny Emil Róbert - A művésztelep teraszáról