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3 - Art & Beginning (the driver or the glorious artist)

In this Art & blog though I focus mainly on the methods, philosophies and joys of painting, these ideas can work across various types of Art making. My focus here is on painting because that's what I do. 

In the last post we surveyed ‘The Engine' of painting. The engine is composed of 4 essentials (subject, medium, tools and tabula) the artist uses The Engine to bring his/her imagination AND his/her “I want…” Fuel to life. 

Art, as we have noted, is a largely subjective enterprise. This sets Art apart from objective or quantitative disciplines such as Chemistry or auto mechanics or building bridges. But as subjective as Art is, the painter must rely on these 4 tangible essentials — The Engine — that allow the artist to move his/her imagination into the material world. 

Ghent Altarpiece (lower panel) by Jan van Eyck

Now we look at The Driver. The Driver is the glorious artist who uses The Fuel and The Engine to make beautiful paintings (or whatever the work of art might be). 

Having read and listened to a lot about Art and Art related subjects the majority of content I've found centers on How To do art or on the appreciation of art (or beauty and aesthetics more generally). I find not as much on what it means to be an artist. 

In his wonderful book, What Painting Is, James Elkins gives us many ways to think of the “act of painting,” but he also puts it simply: “Painting is alchemy” (p. 9, italics original). So then, if painting is alchemy, does this mean the artist is an alchemist? It would seem so, for although in many past centuries artists were classed among the laborers, the artisans or craftsmen, an artist of the fine arts is indeed an alchemist. 

An alchemist is one who has the “power to transform things for the better, real or imagined” (Merriam-Webster). At minimum, because the artist, not The Fuel, not The Engine (not the subject matter, not the tools, not the medium, not the tabula), is the one who makes many things come together to make something new, something better, he/she is the glorious alchemist. 

Alchemy is not something we talk much about in the modern eras. Seems abstract or ethereal doesn't it? I like the way Paul Strisik describes our kind: “The artist's real contribution is the expression of his own reactions to the world around him” (Capturing Light In Oils, p. 2). So, the ways in which the painter goes about making his/her “reactions to the world around”  one to life on the canvas is the act of alchemy. 

This alchemy is the creative process of orchestrating the paint into “something better” than it is in the tube; of orchestrating the cotton or linen canvas into “something better” than it is by itself; of of orchestrating a vision of the subject matter onto the tabula so that we also get a vision of how sublime it (or they if a person) is; of orchestrating its finally home by anticipating the frame or the lighting or setting in which the painting will hang. 

Sounds simple on paper. On paper being an artist or a painter is a straightforward endeavor, no doubt.. It's just a process from A to Done, right? Why then don't more people pursue the life of an artist (assuming interest and some skill)? …or the life of a painter? However, the life and work of an artist is not like machines in a factory. Having seen first hand, assembly lines or machines in manufacturing there is a kind of nobility in that work all its own apart from pure creativity.

Yet, there is one more unique ingredient the human artist-alchemist has — time and energy. The image above, of the center, lower panel in the Ghent Altarpiece took the artist 6 years to complete (1432). The image below, though not on canvas or linen, is from 4 second film clip that took the artist, Eiji Yamamori, a year and three months to bring the to fruition (from Studio Ghibli). Both masterpieces. Some may reply that AI could do this with much less effort. Maybe. If so, it wouldn't be Art, but the product of machines in a factory, a digital factory. The immediacy of the human eye, the human imagination, and the love of being human is all the need stand between artists and their art.

What then is an Artist?

• An alchemist who brings out from the imagination a work of art so others can share in their “reactions to the world” around them and…
• in so doing, the artist is an interpreter of life, 
• the artist is a creative specialist
• the artist is a beautifier
• the artist is a courageous soul that tests the possibilities of the imagination
• and the artist does all this with whatever mental or physical energy it may take and for however long it may take. 

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“Making special [in Art] refers to the fact that humans, unlike other animals, intentionally shape, embellish, and otherwise fashion
aspects of their world to make these more than ordinary.”

Ellen Dissanayake*

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*(quote from article linked in the name)

In the next Art & post we will look at Art & Beginning - the mileage (or how to make the most of Art making). 

Till then, here are a few bullet points for how to look at / enjoy a painting and its Driver, the artist-alchemist. 

For Collectors

Think of an artist whose work you like. Read a biography or a CV curriculum vitae of them if one is available.

For Artists

Same as above. 

For General Audiences

Same as above.

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Note: All artworks by M. Albert Olivero and blog articles written by M. Albert Olivero are copyrighted 2025 with all rights reserved by M. Albert Olivero. Permission to copy or reproduce is not granted unless in writing by M. Albert Olivero.