No, I do not smoke weed, drink absinth, or take other mind-altering substances.
But that doesn't mean I can't be an artist... it just means that my night life might be a little more boring than others.
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Whenever I introduce myself as an artist, the person I am talkign to almost always cocks his or her head to the side and says "oooh" in a sort of "I'm very sorry to hear that" tone of voice. I know what's going through their heads, they're assuming that, because I have chosen to paint for a semi-profession, that I am somehow less responsible, less believable, less human than everyone else.
Why is that?
Is it because they've heard too many stories about insane artists chopping their ears off and eating Cadmium Red from the tube? As children, were they lectured by finger-wagging adults that art 'isn't as important as reading and math'? Whatever it is, most people I meet have a hard time taking me seriously once I mention painting or art.
Announcing that I am taking a year off from work to paint in Europe only makes it worse... like throwing gasoline on the fire.
"Why would you do that?"
"What about your REAL job?"
"What are you going to do the whole time?"
Some people just don't get it. The temtation is to try to explain my reasons for going, apologize for looking irresposible, and re-think my whole being-an-artist/going-on-a-trip idea.
Fighting the urge to cower to overly critical peers and adults, I am learning to stand up and look them in the eye. When faced with a particularly sour individual who 'has a bone to pick' with artists, I simply think to myself
"Man, I wish I could paint a portrait of you with a mustache and a unibrow." That makes me chuckle. Chuckling at an inside joke makes the anti-artist think I'm insane and we part our ways...one towards an easel to paint, and the other to wherever they go when they're bitter and confused.
"To some, art is a noun. To artists, it's a verb."
