Who Is An Artist

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It was the last week of high school and it seemed that everyone had plans but me. What did I want to be when I grew up. Being an artist, that would be neat. Had always enjoyed drawing and painting and always thought of myself as some sort of artist. So after some researching I decided to check out the Maryland Institute College of Art - even went down there and drove around the campus. But at that point just didn't have enough of a goal or gumption to enroll.. At some later date I was again revisiting the idea of a career as a great painter like Picasso and I had a dream. In this dream there was some kind of house/tent/studio (some vivid yellow curtains billowing in the breeze) and standing there, surrounded by my paintings, it just seemed like a lonely experience. Of course it didn't have to be that way, but the thought was that maybe it'd be better to go out into the work world and experience life with "regular" jobs around "normal" people. And I'm happy I did even though I also regret not pursuing a career as an artist.
At this point in my life, I feel that I'm an artist because I AM. And whenever the mood has struck me - I paint. And from what I've seen out there, there are lots of painters, etc, who are not artists - so conversely, there are artists who are not painters. Who is an artist? Someone who makes art. Sometimes the art they make is not always the recognizable objects that we think of as art - it's more about what they DO instead of what they make. Maybe we're surrounded by a lot of undercover artists - and that's what makes so many things in life, special.
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