What are we claiming when we say, ‘I am an artist’, and why is it that some people are able claim this sense of identity whilst others do not? Is the artist’s identity a vocation emanating from some implicit need or desire associated with our survival or is it a social currency employed to locate and amplify our voice within the larger human story? The philosophical and theoretical constructs that inform our thinking about this question profoundly shape our capacity to respond to the desire to be seen and known in this way. In choosing to identify as an artist I am acknowledging that the work of making, being with and seeing art is the primary way in which I make sense of my experience both in the studio and by extension, in the world itself. So who is an artist and what does being an artist mean for you?
My current research explores what is means to identify as an artist who is able to:
Respond: To inner and outer stimulus and the intersubjective experience of art
Discover: New ways of seeing, thinking and being with art
Connect: Making art as an experience of relational connection and care
Create: From a place of becoming – arriving in the middle of a process that is always returning me to the place where I need to begin again…