What I attempted to accomplish in Part I of ‘Finding My Niche’ was to resemble my true feelings of first discovering I possessed this so-called thing “talent” as closely as possible; then remember every moment when ‘my talent’ was debunked by the ego-buster “potential,” in order to create a landscape of not only how to be an “artist,” but ultimately why art is created. To make up your mind that you are an “artist,” one has had to continuously question what makes them such, whether for innovation behind a new project or inspiration for a new persona behind the project, and this process travels beyond the discovery of talent, if we are to reach an honest revelation about artistry. Granted, everyone has the potential to be an “artist” if a particular passion has been traced inside of yourself, and even the thrust of it into the world can be a measure of the “artist’s” artistry, but without a meaning for art before it has begun its production into becoming artistry, there is no purpose for an artist. For the process of presenting whatever is inside of you to the world alone is not what makes one an artist, however brave, and especially if whatever is inside of you is exactly like the world because that leads you only to become an addition to myths of productivity, not an example of an artist. But it is an impact that cannot be measured monetarily or morally, but rather by a pure intention to serve others monetarily and morally, which defines an “artist.”
The myth of productivity is that it always requires a peculiar skill to work effectively, and the misunderstanding of talent is that it requires hard work, but neither of those ideas can be true in industries that will measure our effectiveness by limiting it only to talents and work ethic. Discovery of talent is a pivotal aspect of artistry, just as hard work is pivotal to talent, for anyone with an idea of either knows that it takes hard work to keep the talent one has discovered, and much more talent to work harder than you once did. However, to fulfill our destinies with both talent and hard work is not even a question of its coexistence because we inevitably use both, but a challenge of how we exist as artistic people beyond our artistic abilities. Keeping that coexistence in mind is what invites the limitless productivity, talent, and hard work of service—the art of giving. Art is not an automatic act of giving from the moment that you decide to share it, but from the moment you decide to define art as an act of giving and your artistry as service, you become an artist whether or not your name is called “popular” and your job description is listed as “artist.” The question then, is not, ‘How do I become an artist,’ or even a ‘better artist,’ but simply, ‘What does my art do’ and the more difficult, ‘how does art make me a better person?’ These are the questions that will not only help us reach artistic potential, but enable a world where artistic potential can be reached only due to our humanist potential.
Art is, by its inclination alone, an absolute necessity for social achievement, but what makes an artist a necessity is how the art is used to require spaces that will reveal society for its humanity and inhumanity. The want for industries that promote art with a societal message has never been so complicated by debates of differing personal reasons for taking on an artistic duty, but the need is still great, and necessity has always been enough reason to simply try.
The importance of an artist has much to do with the mere introduction of art as a societal duty, or profession, but the art is only important in spaces where artists can perform societal duties artistically, which that the duty is the cause for the art and the art is the result of our cause. Because of the obvious need for society to be engraved with messages of hope, I no longer have discussions on artistry with talent or hard work as the focus, as those subjects turn into monetary expectations above our moral and ethical obligations. For if art is not an obligation, societal cause still must be, and if art is an obligation, the cause especially must be to payback the freedom of artistic expression for the cost of calling oneself an “artist.”
Peace,
Sister Kahrima
dialogue 