Why are you an artist?

[Philip Letts]

Insanity? Gravity? Can't help yourself? Wanna bankrupt yourself?

Why are you an artist? Really...

[Manon Lamontagne]

The deep inner urge to express ourself via a different dimension. Push the envelop a bit further. Let the world see you in a different universe than the one of communication and let the rest of the world see your the images that inhabit you not always easy to express with words or words have not been created yet to reflect it all.

[jeanne wohlers]

YES...I FEEL THIS TOO...AND YOU EXPRESSED THIS PERFECTLY..THANK YOU..

[connie noyes]

I can't do anything else! I tried desperately to make it in another profession, but my soul, my spirit shriveled and died until I was afraid I would die...a little dramatic perhaps, but it was that intense....being an artist is such a hard way to go...even though I knew from a really young age that I "am artist" ( it is a state of being, as in I am happy!).....Until I made a real commitment to my art practice , full time, no holding back nothing was going to happen. Now 8 years after my epiphany about commitment, I have no other option but to pursue this path...and the universe seems to be behind me..grateful? yes!!

Networking is KEY!!!! I have never had much luck with online sites in that regard, but who knows..maybe this one will be different...Yes YOU have to make it happen...really...I think it is unrealistic to count on anyone else to have the same conviction in my work that I do....and success is different for each artist...better not to measure my success against others. I try to follow my work, do what I love, be generous and keep the energy flowing.

[jeanne wohlers]

YES..INSANITY....IT'S THE ONLY TIME I CAN FEEL ABSOLUTELY FREE...JEANNE WOHLERS...

[Linda Kelen]

Artist by default....
thought that "artist" only applied to those whose works hung in museums...
only in the last so many years
have I come to realize that it is a condition that can begin to come about at any age...
and if fed and nurtured, can become terminal.
I've learned to live with it...
learned how to make it pay..
and have been self supporting because of arting.....
I think it is a good thing to be...not that one has a choice....
I finally understand that there is nothing else I can call myself..
I can't help but art...
it just leaks out....
everywhere...
in everything....
and I don't want to stop it....
I'm terminally addicted.

[Irene Sekersky]

Well I think why I'm an artist is that I can't see myself being happy doing anything else. I don't know if one has talent or that because I thought I did I praticed and got better at my craft. But I belive in doing something because it makes you happy. Doing it for money or prestige or, to pet your ego, Just lessens the fun. Of stating with a blank canvas and making domething of it. Let you mind wander and create something.

Irene Sekersky

[Jinks Kunst Stenciler]

Born in Helvetia in 1976, I do drawings and paintings as everybody since kindergarden. My grand-father was an art ceramist and he won the Best Worker award in France. He inspired me a lot in this field but unfortunately, he would have only seen my teenager frenzy paintings.

I started to like rap music in 1987/88 and in the early 90's, and graffiti with cover albums like «Chromatique» from ‘Sens Unik' done by Lazoo from M.A.C..
But I didn't rush into it, I waited 2003 to really use a spray. Jinks is an alias I didn't chose at random. It sounds pretty well and fits me.

I started to paint on my own and then with graffiti artists from Nantes... nothing but real good time. I spent a lot of time taking pictures of all Nantes' graffitis.
In 2004, I created the first website about Nantes' graffiti "T.A.N.K.". On December 2008, it reached the million of visitors. "T.A.N.K." means in French "All Artists from Nantes Included". It shows to Internet users the level of Nantes' graffitis. In 2005, I created the fanzine ‘Apocalypse Nantes' with other hip-hop activits (Antoine, Julien, François...).
We published 4 issues and then we stopped in order to focus on our own projects.

A hundred graffitis later... In 2007, I discovered Jef Aérosol and Logan Hicks, two great stencil artists. It has been the trigger right away.
I began with small and easy stencils on some of our graffitis.
In June 2007, I've made a few paintings portraying figures we all know (Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Mandela, Andy Warhol, Rita Mitsouko, Grâce Kelly...), then I made some Nantes artists (DJ Atom, Hocus Pocus, Dajla, Djay...).
From that time, I can't go without it !
It's an absolute virus I can't heal ! Fortunately, there's no pain ! Just real pleasure !

http://jinkstencil.jimdo.com/stencils-pochoirs

[Luciana Mariano]

I´m an artist because I was born like this. I can´t help it. Believe me, I´ve tried to avoid but it made me weird. It was unnatural. Not painting is like not breathing - I stop, I die.

[Jason Ellis]

Being an artist is freedom of expression but yet there are limits. I like to maybe push it just over the controversial line mark. But also for my own pleasure drift off into a place and create something that has not yet been done in the world. I think its fantastically probable that there are 6.6+ billion people on earth and only 1 person has though of an idea. I enjoy being that 1 person and i guess so do many other artists (painters, singers, poets, photographers etc)

[Chris Godber]

Tough question with a lot of possible answers

I guess the main reason I am an artist is becuase I am a person who very much lives in their own head and imagination and I producing art helps me with the process of expressing my inner world and conflicts etc.

I often imagine images in my head , visions I spose you could call it and they need to be expelled otherwise I think I would go mad.

So insanity is what drives me to be an artist basicily haha.

[Angel Perdomo]

hmmm .... im an artist to piss my parents off...j/k... but im an artist because i love the way i can express my self ...its like being a kid again ...because when im doin art i feel like there is no worries just that im doing something i like ... yea it hard to get notice but im like whatever .... because what matter to me is that im doing something i like and it takes me away from all the troubles that come my way ...and with such grate liberty of expression and happiness art has given me is the reason i am an artist.