yesterday my friend, Matt, and I visited a little art gallery called La Petite Mort in lowertown Ottawa.  it's a tiny little gallery that exhibits local artwork from a variety of artists.  it's a really neat little place that caters to a young hip crowd, without being pretentious and snooty... i liked this place a lot.  The owner, Guy, is a really nice guy and quite down to earth, so it was a pleasure going there and i'd highly recommend you check it out.

 

What was interesting, i found, was the amount of artwork that was there.  he had his main floor dedicated to a monthly exhibit, and other pieces by other artists on the other wall... the basement was where he stored other artwork that just didn't fit into the main floor, and this is where all the gems were.  it was amazing how much artwork was there, the variety and the creativity, just stuffed into this basement, possibly never finding a home... it was really interesting.  if i had LOTS of money and lots of wall space, i think i'd buy tonnes of stuff... but the reality is that buying pieces of artwork is just too expensive.

 

while looking at many of the pieces though, i found that a lot of it, was do-able. what i mean by that is that i think with my current level of talent in painting and drawing and such, i think that many of the pieces that were created were within my skillset and creativity limits, and they were selling for $100 and up!  now, i know that many, or most of these artists are formally trained in some form or way that gives them the credibility to be able to have their work in a gallery... but the question is, then, what constitutes an artist?

 

can you call yourself an Artist?

 

my friend, Corrine, and I had a long talk about this.  both of us, having science backgrounds, but able to create different pieces of artwork in some shape or form, might not be labeled "artists".  She considers herself an artist whereas i would really call it a hobby of mine.  but despite it being a hobby, having no formal training (not even high school art class) might classify me as a non-artist.  it's kind of pretentious like that, to have artists consider themselves an elite class, solely based on the fact that they have that formal training...

 

maybe the term "artist" is so general though... it might be more important to define the word "artist" beyond the definition of "one who is skilled in fine arts".  what would you define an artist as??