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?
