The Artistic Way of Living and Perceiving

The Artistic Way of Living and Perceiving

Being an artist is more than simply producing artworks. It is more than simply knowing art and how to make it. Being an artist is a complete way of life in itself, and at its utmost is a mode of perceiving the world to where everything is seen as a work of art. Being an artist is a mode of existence. For the artist’s life to be this complete way of being, it is necessary to take a certain direction and overcome certain obstacles. It is easy for the artist for fall into ruts along the path of art. This is one artist’s account of how three of the biggest challenges, or these ruts, present themselves, and how it is possible to overcome them. As such, this is an examination of how the challenges of being an artist lead to a fuller understanding of what it means to live as an artist, and how being an artist is a very specific kind of life. The work done by Gabriel Marcel and Henry Bugbee presents a particular perspective which enhances the life of an artist, and so their work will help us to understand this artistic mode of being which I am talking about.

It is important to illustrate what the three most common ruts are that an artist can fall into. I use the term rut because what occurs to an artist is a falling into a hole of sorts from which it is difficult to emerge at times. These holes or pits seem more appropriately described by the term rut. So it is that an artist, when on the path of art, may find themselves stuck in any or all of the following situations.

The first rut is one of expectations. It is the expectation of what art should be. If this expectation is not met, the artist will become frustrated and will not enjoy their work. The expectations of one’s work may become more severe to where the artist becomes more deeply entrenched in this rut to the point of it turning into perfectionism. The rut of perfection is worse, because it never allows the artist to be satisfied, whereas the previous rut of expectation only creates dissatisfaction some of the time.

This difficulty seems to be encountered earlier than the others by an individual who is pursuing art.