nothing about art

Today I know less about art than I ever have before. In fact, the more I learn about art and art making, the less I know what art is and how to make it. Sometimes I yearn for the days when I just worked construction all day and drank from the moment I got off until I passed out, then did it all the next day, too. Those days went by so quickly that I hardly knew they happened at all. Now so much of my time is spent thinking that my mind wanders and I get lost and distracted. As I paint or draw, I think about what it means to make art and why I make it. It's difficult because so much of what I do is emotionally charged - my art is my response to the imagery I confront and a response to the stories I uncover in my research. In a way, what I do is simply report my findings in a visual format. I'm less an artist than a reporter, though a reporter with a toe in conceptual waters. I think that to be considered an artist one must be dedicated to a particular vision and one must constanly produce something that can presented as art in an art-friendly atmosphere. It doesn't hurt to produce "art" in a consistent medium and rarely stray from it until one's popularity wanes. Much of the struggle for me is related to the method of presentation - should I chose to present only paintings or should I create an installation of other works? I guess what I should try to remember is that anything goes with art - what I call "art" is art simply because I self-classify as an "artist". If I make an object and present it in an art atmosphere, then continue to make similar objects for the length of time to be considered a career, I am an artist. I am an artist until I stop making things for people who like art. I am an artist because I feel and I choose to translate that feeling into a medium that the world can understand.