Art to me is limitless by means of median. Growing up I thought it was just what you called a painter. My mom is a painter. She was one then, too. I knew she was an artist. When I grew into my teenage years I began making cover art for various artists all around the USA. It wasn’t painting I was doing (it was digital) but it still made sense to me that I fit the artist title. That planted a seed to expand my idea of what it meant to be an artist from just being a painter to possibly more. Much more.

So I saw the word artist differently. By my own experience I developed a new definition and by that I saw photographers as artists. I thought, well, I’d done plenty of photography at that point in my life and would continue to have many more projects with photography. I also had done “modeling” which was posing for friends in front of cameras so we could put it on Instagram. I’d end up doing more official modeling for editorials and fashion mags, but at that point, I was still young and deciding what an artist was. I also made music. It was youthful and aimless at the time. I’d end up making over 10,000 beats and 50+ finished songs in the coming years, but at the time I was still learning what an artist was.

An artist is everyone. Art is boundless from the exclusivity of a specific median. Art is expression. When a beaver structures a dam to stop water, are they not crafting something with an intent somebody on the outside of the process will not understand immediately? I think they are. I think that’s the same with music. I can write a song that reflects my internal struggles with an addiction but nobody will know what that addiction is if I don’t say it. The more you leave up to the viewers interpretation, the more ambiguous it is; and yes, while that’s art, there is no line that’s drawn we can declare begins and ends the definition of art. We don’t know why the spider builds its web in that shape, but we sure can speculate if not else stare at its beauty for a while.

What does it mean to be an artist?

I’ve decided for myself.

You decide for yourself.