On Being An Artist

from the top:

-- recent watercolored self-portrait

-- Melissa
-- Watercolored Self-Portrait

-- Into the Darkness (self-portrait)

-- Jennifer (slight watercolor)

-- Luba at Jazz Central
all photos by Larry Hoyt - copyright 2008 LarryHoyt

======================================

I don't know if it's possible to be an artist without considerable reflection upon what it means to be an artist.

Even for those lucky chosen few -- the incredibly creative ones to whom the gifts of talent come naturally -- at some point in the process of making art, some questions arise:

among the most basic - to what extent does the artist create from his own need for expression, vs.

the artist's desire to communicate thoughts and feelings and perceptions to others, to an audience.

For most true artists, I think it is both -- there's the absolute internal need to create, coupled with the desire to communicate with others. I don't know if it would make much sense to have one without the other.

I've been thinking a lot lately about my own need to create, especially in the realm of photography. Sometimes I feel like I want to document every interesting thing I see, all day, everyday.

But, obviously, at some point, one needs to edit this process and work on developing a focused approach to the art that one can justifiably call a style.

I don't know if I've achieved that yet, but I am working on it.

Sometimes I feel like I'm still working to perfect my basic skills as a portrait photographer.

Above are some portraits I was looking at --some recent, some from years ago, some nice lookin', some not so nice lookin' -- that got me thinkin' about my fascination with capturing images.

It's very much an on-going process.

For the most part, I think my overall style(s) in photography are fairly eclectic, but I do try to make sure that every photo I show has a clearly defined (if not totally in focus) subject. I want to convey something about what attracted me to what I saw.

If there are any hidden subtleties in the images, that's likely just icing on the cake -- but I must admit, I do like icing!