To Be An Artist
I always have a hard time trying to write a bio. Do you go with the tongue-in-cheek funny option, the multi-hyphenated multi-disciplinary option, the list of basic facts like location and age, maybe come across as cool and nonchalant by having no bio at all... it’s funny how, when asked to define who we are in one sentence we often opt sharing what we *do*. Like that’s where we find our value and significance. What we want people to know first is what we do. Interesting.
I’ve loved creativity from an early age. I would use the bottom of a cardboard box to create a television and act out various shows in the cardboard cut-out screen, I made stop-motion animations out of my toys, I made short films in my garden with my first video camera. As I grew older I developed a love of music, design, photography... I just loved to create.
I was always under the impression that a person should specialise. Choose their focus and stick at it, and get really good at that one craft. But I loved too many things. I knew I wanted to create but I could never pick just one thing. Even within one area like music, I couldn’t stick to one lane.
In school I learnt violin, clarinet, recorder, piano and guitar. I didn’t get very far with any of them! I got into producing music through making remixes and electronic music, before developing a taste for heavy rock and then a love of acoustic folk songs. If you’ve followed my musical journey for a while you’ll know I rarely stick to one sound or style.
Even as a follower of Jesus, I feel like trying to explain your relationship with faith and art can become an added challenge. Am I a “Christian Artist”, or simply a Christian who is also an artist? Is my music ‘worship music’? Is it gospel? Congregational? Devotional? Mainstream but with a faith element? What if I release a song that’s not about Jesus, is that deceitful now that I have a primarily Christian audience? Or is it equally wrong to stick to a formula just because of what people expect from me? What a minefield.
It wasn’t until very recently I had a conversation with a friend, who is equally multi-talented and wears many hats when it comes to creative projects. She told me, “you’re an artist”. She explained how she was coming to terms with using that title for herself too, because within it is the freedom to simply, make art. It’s not limited to a certain discipline or style. An artist might make an installation piece one month, and then a painting the next, and choreograph a dance performance the month after.
I recently had the chance to visit some art galleries in Paris. I finally saw Claude Monet’s Water Lillies in Musée de l’Orangerie, as well as an exhibition of works by Matisse in the Louis Vuitton Foundation building. I was struck by the variety of work on display there. From paintings and sculptures of various styles and expressions. Some even with descriptions of how challenging the pieces were and how critically they were received at the time. And besides each piece, simply, a title and a year. Something spoke to me about that. Whether it was loved or hated, this piece was named, and dated. This is what Matisse created at that time. And now all of it, in its delightful variety, was displayed together in one room, as one collection.
I realised that sometimes I put so much pressure on the next thing I make because I feel like it needs to define who I am as an artist and be the thing that says everything I want to say. When in reality, everything I create has a title and a date. Future Forever. 2022. Take Me Back. 2024. Seasons. 2017-2018. Whatever I create next simply sits alongside my previous work. I recently redesigned my website to reflect this, showcasing my projects more like a portfolio or a gallery. Because it is all a part of me and it is all an expression of love and worship. It brought a certain freedom to what I was making, because it weighs on me that it may not fit what people expect, and yet I can’t force the process. I don’t want to make anything besides what flows naturally from me.
And so, I’m laying down the labels and the lengthy bios. My name is Jonathan and I’m an artist.
