I Am An Artist

"I think I would love to be an artist."
"No, no you’re not artist
material."
"Well, that may be, but I would like to be one anyway."
"You
can’t be an artist, for a number of reasons: You can’t support yourself and be
an artist. You can’t possibly take time away from all of life’s responsibilities
to just sit and play with art. And you can’t just go around calling yourself an
artist. You must be deemed one."
"Hmmmm, I hadn’t thought of all
that."
"Yeah, I didn’t figure."
"Did I mention that creating makes me come
alive?"
"Did I mention that creating makes you go broke and is a silly waste
of time?"
"Yes, yes, you did make that point. And I suppose it’s a good
one."
"Of course it is."
"But what’s the bit about you have to be deemed
an artist…what does that mean?"
"Well, it means you can’t just out of the
blue wake up one morning and say, ‘Hey, I’m an artist now.’ "
"You
can’t?"
"No, you have to be good. And someone else has to think so too. In
fact several someones."
"Oh, well that’s too bad. I couldn’t even get into
Grad school. Wasn’t good enough."
"I know."
"And I didn’t go to school for
art."
"I know."
"I should have. But I took a safer approach."
"I know.
Artists aren’t safe. Your safe."