Every person on earth is drawn to certain types of visual and auditory aesthetics in the surrounding environment, and every person creates his or her own aesthetic in that environment. Some people claim that they engage in this creation for strictly utilitarian or functional purposes, whereas other people claim that they create for artistic purposes and thereby christen those creations as ‘Art’. I consider myself to be of the latter persuasion.
One day recently, I was walking through the metal fabrication studio, and I observed a student cutting, bending, and welding steel rods with various machines while wearing a welding mask over his face. Later that day, while walking home, I saw a construction worker on the side of the road cutting through steel rods with a gas-powered saw while wearing that same mask. He seemed to be deriving a great deal of pleasure from this activity as well. So, I thought to myself, everyone on earth creates, but we are all willing to subject ourselves to the stereotypes and connotations of very different societal labels.
For whatever reasons that be, that is, our upbringing, our financial situations, and our general outlooks on life, we label ourselves, our activities, and our creations with very different terms. In my view, a thing is ‘Art’ when, and only when, the person who created it defines it as such, and this person, therefore, also has the freedom to label him or herself as an artist.
I create sculptures, drawings, paintings, graphical and electronic pieces, as well as music to entertain, educate, and inspire others. I define these pieces as art and take my place in the art world because I feel that this position allows me the greatest freedom to express scientific, political, and spiritual views without having to confine myself to only one of those fields. Making art is what I love the most in this world, and my place as an artist is where I feel that I belong.