CAN’T IT BE ANYTHING BUT ART?

Nice drawing.  You must be an artist.

In the local paper, there was an article about a young person who does drawings of buildings in our Village.  He does not do representational drawings, but rather he draws the buildings in his unique way with his personal viewpoint.  And the article called him an artist and his drawings art.

Does everything have to be art?  Is there no more specific term than artist?  Isn’t there a wider set of terms which might be applied to those who put pencil to paper?  When we don’t know what else to call it, we lump it all into this vast category which we call art.

A consultation with Power Thesaurus returns the following synonyms for artist:  artisan, designer, painter, adept, master, expert, artiste, connoisseur, virtuoso, craftsman…Synonyms that show up in other places include creator, originator, producer, etc.

See what I mean?  We go from artist to artisan to designer to painter.  We go from artist to originator.  There are no more specific terms for what you call someone who puts a pencil to paper?  We are satisfied that there is simply one term, artist, into which the vast creative output of humanity is applied?

Trying Websters, it is no better.  “Artist;  one who professes and practices an imaginative art.  A person skilled in one of the fine arts.”  That’s it?

Considering the gentleman mentioned above, does he have to be called an artist?  Is it even right to call him an artist?  Here we have someone who is obsessed with drawing, and is absolutely intrigued with the buildings that he sees every day in his village.  And he makes drawings of these buildings with a unique purpose and viewpoint.  He is giving a unique set of perceptions and understandings.  He is giving precise data sets on his subject matter;  buildings.  So instead of artist, how about:

artor   n.   a person who draws buildings with a unique perception

anaster   n.   a person who analyzes buildings via drawings

strunater  n.  a person who provides insightful structural visual facts about buildings

These are terms which would apply to those of us who draw buildings.  With the incredible range of drawing subjects (people, flowers, cars, kittys, etc.), terms specific to these subjects should be established.

We should develop a whole host of terms which give greater specificity to the results of putting pencil to paper.  Vast knowledge sets are being completely ignored.  We should push our language to help define this incredible human endeavor that we call art.