“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet”

William Shakespeare – Romeo and Julia

Hello dear travel companion,

i know in my last post The white rabbit strategy, i said i will write about a little strategy called „bottle it up“ – but this post has to wait a little bit longer.

I am still sitting in my little cul-de-sac, trying to cut a branch or just a leaf of the boscage in front of me to see where this leads me. (If you missed the post about this read here: Lost in the Boscage ) And when i am not actively working on getting through the shrubbery i am just spending time on trying to relax, recharge and most importantly refocusing. So let’s refocus on one of my goals, one of the roads i wanna take in my life and the main reason i started this blog. 

In my first post ever, I wrote “I always wanted to be a writer when I was little.“  So i started to question when IS a writer a writer. I have a friend who is a brilliant writer, with a first book already published. Definitely a writer, wouldn’t you agree? Well, this friend might see it different. 

I brought up this question to some people around me and interesting enough we couldn’t find like THE answer and ended up in a kind of philosophical conversation about not only when is a writer a writer but even about when is an artist and artist. 

One person said he feels odd when people refer to him as an artist as he thinks it sounds “conceited”. Another one said he thinks he is an artist. And both of them clearly are in my eyes (both very talented musicians by the way.) 

As we couldn’t find a solution to my riddle i decided to ask the dictionary.

First i looked up “artist”.

Oxford Dictionary says “a person who creates work of art, especially paintings or drawings” and “a person who is a professional singer dancer, actor etc.” 

Alright, so in this case i guess we would need to define “professional”. Which according to the dictionary is always linked to doing something as a job. So in this case everyone who doesn’t do art as their main or sole source of income is not artist ? Well, i strongly disagree on that. 

Fortunately enough the Cambridge dictionary says “an artist: someone who paints, draws, or makes sculptures, someone who performs music.”  That’s more up to my taste. And even adds “someone who creates things with great skill and imagination”  Which i think is a pretty cool definition. And my dear friends who don’t think you are an artist – can you argue with that?

Ironic enough though neither dictionary states writing as a form of art. I can only hope that it is hidden in the etc. and the “things” that are created. Because if not i have bad news for the great authors like Shakespeare, Wilde, Goethe and so on. Sorry guys, you are no artists. You are just writers. 

Which brings me back to the question, when is a writer a writer or what is a writer. I turned to the dictionaries again. As i was way more happy with what the Cambridge dictionary said about artist i started there. It says “a person who writes books or articles to be published”  Well it does not say what “published” is defined by. So i could now claim i am a writer, as i write this article with the aim to click on the “publish” button on my editor. 

Still doesn’t feel right though. 

Let us have a look into what the people in Oxford think about it. Oxford dictionary defines a writer as “a person whose job is writing books, stories, articles, etc.” or “ a person who has written a particular thing” 

A person who has written a particular thing. Well boom: in this case i am indeed a writer. But do not worry, as i will not be that conceited (love this word by the way). In this case we all are writers. And let’s be honest we all are artists. 

The beauty about art is that it is such a subjective thing. Each and everyone has their own opinion about what is art, who is an artist. 

And as Shakespeare wrote “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;”  maybe we can try to see this “name” as a substitute for “word”.  So if we we don’t call someone who makes music a musician, someone who writes a book a writer and and someone who paints a painter – and all of them artist does it change who they are?

So i am still not calling myself a writer but i hope that one day i will do so with pride in my voice. Until then i let you my dear travel companions decide upon that. 

What do you think about art in general? What is your definition on that. And who is someone you would call an artist? Please leave your thoughts in the comment.

Thank you for reading and until soon

A.