We asked artists around the world: “What is your role as an artist in society, your local community, and the world at large?”Every artist plays a different and necessary part in contributing to the overall health, development, and well-being of our society. Show
Creative thinkers and makers provide their communities with joy, interaction, and inspiration, but they also give thoughtful critique to our political, economic, and social systems — pushing communities to engage thoughtfully and make steps toward social progress. From documenting human history to expressing collective emotions, these nine artists from around the world tell us how they view their role as creative contributors. Artists are a vehicle for expressing universal emotion.Art is about connecting with people’s emotions. It’s personal and at the same time, universal. I’m an expressive painter, working from the landscape and my memories. And yes, my work is personal, although it may not seem so at first. Feelings about my relationship with my mum, dad, and family creep into the work. It’s a human urge to express emotion through the medium of mark-making. We all carry with us memories of our past experiences. An artist has the ability to ‘feel strongly’ to be ‘sensitive’ to things and express this in the paint, gesture, or color. The artist ‘absorbs’ the atmosphere of a place or the memory of a feeling. Sometimes, it’s a burden for the artist to carry all this emotion – to be so sensitive.
Everybody hurts. Everybody loves. Everybody hopes. And, everybody dies. Mainly, art is about our own sense of mortality. Lesley Birch, York, UK@Lesley_BirchArtists are responsible for unearthing the truth.I believe that the artist's role, above all things, is to be as true to themselves as they can — within society, the community, and the world at large. This sounds like a cliche but is in itself much harder than it seems.
This resonates with people on a personal and global level, because it is not only empowering but starts from inside ourselves. Before deciding to follow my own artistic path, I co-founded a community arts cafe. This was an amazing experience in itself, but as it wasn't my true vocation I felt there was a limit to how much I could give. This is because I started from the outside in, trying to fix things around me, before realizing I needed to tap into something central to myself. Nina Fraser, Portugal@Nina.fraser, @_ninafraser_ |