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I come
from a family of artists. One brother is a textile artist, another dabbles in
metal sculpture and my niece is a professional water colourist mostly painting
portraits. Going back further I had a great uncle who professionally created
exquisite jewellery. Hell, I even married into a family of artists. My
father-in-law was a talented amateur landscape artist. You'd think some of it
would have rubbed off on me but no. As far as the visual arts go anything I
produce is derivative and, let's face it, not very exciting, so I really
haven't ever thought of myself as an artist. Until now.
Lee's
question has had me thinking about my writing in a way I had not before. I've
always loved words and what they are capable of. I taught myself to read before I went to
school partly because words fascinated me and partly because they opened up a
whole different world to me. As a seven and eight year old I used to sit on the
living room floor (because the giant one volume dictionary that stood on the
bottom shelf of the bookcase was too heavy to lift) and read it, opening pages
at random for the joy of learning new words. i still get waylaid by new words
in a thesaurus whenever I venture into one to the point that, unless I have
time to indulge myself, I now use on-line versions or I'll find myself hours later wandering
through words that are fascinating but have no connection to what I was looking
for.
All this
is a round about way of saying that, although words always fascinated me, it
took me a long while to realise that, yes, I am an artist in my own way. Unlike
all those other artists in my family I use words to create my art. I see myself
primarily as a story teller - someone who takes words and melds and crafts them
into something that is bigger than its individual parts. Those words (whatever
their form they are used in - and my writing ranges from fiction, both short
and long, poetry, reviews, blogging, articles and non-fiction) are my paints,
the word processing system I'm using - might be a pen or a computer. It doesn't
matter - is my paint brush or palette
knife and the paper or computer screen they end up on is my canvas.
This
applies to all writers to one degree or another. When I look at the best
writers I am struck by the fact that, within the structure of a good story,
they do much more. They play with language, stretching it and using it to
create images that are as tangible as those on canvas. They don't set out to preach
but they do present the reader with ideas. They explore important issues in
society and make us think about them. The best stories will stay in our
memories long after we've finished them and this is characteristic of all art.
It makes us think and expands our knowledge of ourselves, both as individuals
and as a human being and this is true of all art.
It speaks
to the mind and the heart. It may challenge, delight, infuriate or fascinate
us. It doesn't matter which emotion it provokes, as long as it provokes one.
It's this quality that defines art and it's as true of writing as any of the
other arts.
So yes, I
can finally acknowledge I am an artist.
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