Art as a Verb

Paul Butzi has a great post over at Photo Musings on "art as a verb." He writes:

I think the vast majority of artists are better off having their goal to be engaging in the artistic process than having their goal be to make great works of art....

...[A]rtmaking is an example of something I think our society has drifted away from. In the past, if you wanted to be an artist, you got materials, and you sat down, and you made some art. Nowadays, if you want to be an artist, you’re expected to go to school, learn centuries worth of art history, art theory, and art criticism, and get a degree. After that, you can work on building a network of contacts with gallery owners, art dealers, etc. And when the art you make starts to sell, you can call yourself an artist....

I think our society is desperately in need of artmaking at every level, from preschool kids through the most senior of citizens. It’s not enough to have art, we need people to make art as part of their daily lives.... [M]y observation is that making art changes the way people live their lives. It doesn’t seem to matter whether the art is pencil sketches or playing music or writing poetry, photography or woodworking or metal sculpture. Engaging in artmaking helps people perceive things more clearly, helps them break out of the polarized thinking that plagues us so. Artmaking helps us figure things out.

I replied (in part): Amen! So well said, Paul. You actually caught me in the process of thinking about making a “professional” portfolio website. I began to question whether I really ought to do that if I want to retain my love of photography. I realized that you do sell your photos from your website in spite of your philosophy about art as a verb, so it’s still OK if I want to move in that direction. But I will definitely be thinking about your comments for a long time to come.