I'll never forget the time I was wrapping up a sip & paint party I was the arts instructor of. The party was successful and everyone seemed to have a good time, when I suddenly had a conversation with one of the customers. She compliments me on the class and spoke of her daughter and her artistic abilities. The woman told me the following and I'm paraphrasing here:

      "My daughter is a good artist and she wants to be an artist professionally when she grows up but I told her to find another job idea, something more stable. Being an artist just isn't a realistic job."

         Now of course this is not true, as her and the rest of the people at the painting party paid me to host ironically, but it did force me to think deeper and understand why she would say such a thing. Of course her voice alone doesn't speak for everyone in society but then I thought about the way we celebrate our artist in society as a whole and thought, "well... can I blame her for her opinion?"

      Theirs plenty of jobs for artist in this world however, for the most part or at least from a professional standpoint. The issue with these jobs in fields like animation, we tend to know of the creator of the characters or the studio that presents such a project but little is known about the artist whom of which did the artwork or animation especially if they are separate from the creator or studio in which has produced the project. 

         For instance many people know that Stan Lee was the original creator/ editor of Spider-Man but how many people know that Steve Ditko was the original artist of Spider-Man? (disclaimer: we love Stan Lee and everything he and Marvel Comics have done!)

          As time goes on many other artist would illustrate Spider-Man along with other comic book stories but one issue remains: The masses will always recognize Marvel Comics and Stan Lee for the creation of such characters but when it comes to the artist of these characters they seem to be easily forgotten if known of at all.  It seems that mostly those who are in the industry or have aspirations of being in the animation industry would know of these artist but not your everyday person. This makes me question how cartoon/ comic book characters can be house hold names but not the artist who configured them. 

       Even in other industries that involve the arts, we as people for the most part are prone to know the name of a building, the company which built the building, but when it comes to the architect, the draftsman, or artist who came up with the design of the building, these people can easily remain unknown unless you are told by a industry insider. 

       My father came up with many drafts of some of the most popular buildings in Atlanta, Georgia, which I would have never known he was involved with until he told me. Are artist who have professional jobs restricted to being behind the scenes not to be celebrated among the every day man? Theirs many artist who could care less about popularity, however popularity is not what this writer is asking for but rather recognition of the craft.

      Independent artist who have remarkable skills whom of which are building businesses around their artistic craft  can even make a mastpiece, and the piece itself can over shadow the artist. One can worship a piece of art and be total fine with not knowing of the artist who did the work.

      In many other crafts the recognition of key figures produce marketable names so large that people who don't even familiarize themselves with these crafts know of the important names in the industry. For instance if I brought up basketball a name that may instantly come to mind is LeBron James, if I mention football Tom Brady, if I were to bring up rap music you may think of Jay Z, but if I were to bring up modern day painters/ artist, is their any names that just jump out at you?

       During my classes when people bring up a famous artist the first person they mention is Bob Ross, who was a phenomenal artist who hosted "The Joy of Painting" from 1983-1994. He would unfortunately pass away in 1995. Although such a man is worthy of praise, in 2019 an artist who's last show aired in 1994 is the most popular arts figure people around me were able to name. 80% of the time in which Bob Ross is brought up around me most people don't know his name and simply refer to him as: 

"the guy with the afro and light voice who painted on TV." 

       The names that are considered legendary in art for the most part (not all but many) don't seem to get their justified amount of recognition until they are dead and have their masterpieces left behind. Artist usually will see increase in the worth of their art because the artist is no longer around to make duplicates or similar works.

       Shows  like "Black Ink" and "InkMasters" do a wonderful job at spotlighting artists, however these are figures associated mostly with the art of tattooing. Such a thing is great, however the arts in its entirety need to be valued more in our society and artist of all kinds outside of tattooing also need to be recognized for the power of their abilities. 

      One reason why artist can get so easily overlooked is because some may just see artist as people who put fancy designs on paper as a hobby. This couldn't be further from the truth and is only the tip of the iceberg as far as what artist contribute to this world. Look around you. Everything you see in the world that was built, designed, and manufactured was drawn by an artist first before it became a reality.

      Your house, your car, your clothes, all your tools and instruments were all drawn by an artist first before that became reality. Artist literally plan, convey, and entertain the entire world we live in. If artist are so important in society shouldn't we celebrate them more? Shouldn't we celebrate artist while they are still alive, especially industry leaders like we do with sports, music, business, and entertainment? This writer says 

"YES WE SHOULD!"

      This blog "Artist Blog", was created not only to promote arts events but to put a on spotlight artist and help them get the exposure they deserve! I'm glad that we will be spotlighting an artist every month telling their story and experience in the industry. We look forward to giving as many artist as possible a platform and spotlight while educating as many people as possible about the importance of art!