12-29-14 Can my artistic expression involve multiple Art forms?

The Question

As I’ve been thinking about my Artistic path during the holidays, I’ve been realizing I have the urge to create Art in different mediums.

My Thought Process

Let me explain.

The Art form for which I’ve made the most money has been video, hands down. It’s part of my full time job at A&E and I’ve also been hired to shoot my own videos. So I have to think of myself as a videographer (director/cameraman/editor).

That said, I love to write too, hence this blog and the scripts I’ve shot over the years. I have to consider myself a writer.

I’ve been hired as a photographer, so I’m proud to include that in my list of artistic expressions. So, I’m also a photographer!

I just got to visit with my friend, who’s a painter and she got me excited about painting and drawing. Drawing has always been something I’ve wanted to be good at, but never felt I was. My friend said the following (I’m ad-libbing here) “you’re going to spend years hating what you draw, that’s the way it goes. And then one day you may wake up and draw something which isn’t that bad. And then you may find yourself becoming very good!”

What a relief that was to hear! Like music to my ears, because I felt like I finally gave myself permission to try drawing and painting. If my friend can say that, having worked at it for 25 years, surely there’s hope for me!

Conclusions

I think I’m realizing that along with being a writer, I’m basically a visual artist. That’s the only way to really group together all the art forms I like to do: video, photography, drawing and painting.

If I acknowledge I like doing them all, then perhaps I won’t be so resistive when I’m pulled towards painting one week and drawing the next. I think Austin Kleon would agree.

If I feel brave enough, I’ll even try to post some of my drawing and painting to perhaps show some of my artistic process.