What is the role of the artist?
May 7th, 2008 by admin
What a question! Funny thing is, before the paper with the assignment even made it to my hands, I was contemplating the very same question after finishing a music session of practicing the carillon. Why do we spend time perfecting an art (whether it be musical, aesthetic, sports, etc.) when the world may have need of us in other more pressing areas of study?
Well the more I thought about it, the more answers came up as to why we don’t need the creative areas of study, ironically enough. For instance, the world has need of more spiritual thinkers; or I bet they’d say more doctors, or more world leaders willing to take on the task of bringing us together globally, or what have you. But–and this is the kicker, in my opionion–for some reason many of us humans have in us a need, a desire ingrained in us to create and to be a part of something new. What is this? And where does it come from? By the sole fact that it exists, means there’s a reason and some level of importance to it.
I was reading Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art, and he talks about the many books he wrote that failed miserably before he ended up writing The Legend of Bagger Vance, the book he is most famous for now. When the idea of writing a book about golfing came to him he thought, “No one will want to read this! And why write if no one will buy it?” However, the push to develop this story remained. So he had to learn how to let go of the notion that writing was for someone else or for money, and write for the sole purpose that it had to be written: the story wanted and needed to be told, so why question that?
In the same way, that is how I want my art to be: a complete expression of what is bubbling inside of me and is just waiting to burst into existence. Only when Pressfield let himself travel that road did he find his writing career take off, and I think it’s where we all should start when approaching any type of creative endeavor.
It’s not about what may or may not sell. It’s about what cannot stand to wait in the dark, in the idea-form any longer and must come out into the light and be shared. And this quote from Pressfield’s book says that to me: “It’s a gift to the world… your contribution…” Without it, the world would not be what it is or what it could be. Any sense of holding back is cheating us out of something beautiful that only you can bring (you meaning, you, me, anyone…). And to live a life that caters to fulfilling that need–that is our job as artists.
