We are Merely the Artists

‘I’m very good, ‘ Jonathan went on, but so simply that there was no egotism in the remark, ‘but I’m nothing like as good as this. I simply am not. I could never, never paint this.’
--C. Williams, All Hallows’ Eve

As an artist, have you ever had the experience of looking at your finished work and thinking: “this isn’t mine! This can’t be that awkward block I was scratching away at or that strange fabric I was mixing runny colors on?” At the end of a work, if it is successful, everything comes together suddenly and the picture is clear. Of course we don’t always “get it right”, but when we do, it’s a most uncanny feeling. There’s a disconnect for the artist between the making and the viewing.
We talk of art as having a life of its own, and that seems true in one sense. Of course we literally are the ones chiseling away at something or adding dabs of shadow here and there, but the completed work is its own entity. The artist Jonathan in All Hallows’ Eve feels this when he leaves his painting for a few hours and comes back to find it “more real” and “better” than he had left it. It’s as though the piece has come alive once he has ceased his labor.
I don’t want to suggest anything too mystic, but perhaps it is well to note that we are not the only authors of our own work. The wood, clay, and paint themselves shape the work and determine its character. As artists we must be aware of our mediums and ensure that we are using them properly and according to their nature. The artist may be the main creative force, but if he works against his medium, he will fail. Perhaps in the end all I’m getting at in this post is a reminder of humility. We are hardly the “masters” of our own work, we are merely the artists.

-Heather VanderWall