How to Care for Your Friend: The Artist

Do you have that one friend that always has ink on their hands, paint on their face, or a pen stuck in their hair (or behind the ear)? You can’t seem to be able to go on a walk with them without them stopping a dozen times (or more) to ooh and ah over the detail in a piece of street art, or the range of colors in a minuscule flower you never even noticed.

Color, for obvious reasons, is very important to the artist. I admit, sometimes we may take it a bit far. We say “rose red” or “crimson” when plain old “red” would have done the job for you. But an artist hears the name of a color and can picture it clearly in their minds eye, much like a musician can say the name of a note, and hear it in their head.

For us, “rose red” and “crimson” are as different the notes “A” and “C”. So when you hear us spout off some obscure color, just round to the nearest basic color and go with that.

Inside the artist’s head there’s a filter, and everything we see goes through that filter and gets converted into vibrant colors and patterns that we see everywhere around us.

We look at a landscape, and automatically we start picking out the different colors we see, and which ones we would use to paint or draw the scene in front of us. Eyes are especially a thing of fascination. So many individual colors, all blending together to make each eye unique. You may find us leaning in close to you and staring into your eyes. We’re just trying to get a better idea of just how many colors we can see in there. We’re not trying to be weird or creep you out, but feel free to tell us if you’re uncomfortable; the artist breed is usually easy going and will readily give you your personal space back.

In a very broad sense, there’s two types of artists. The open artist, and the secret artist.

The open artists own their title and gladly show you their artwork, talk about the new project they're working on, or a new media they're trying right now. In fact, you may find it hard to get them to stop talking about art. You'll often find them surrounded by canvases, pencils, and paint; and perhaps with the need for a friend to come along and bring them out of their own little world for a while.

The secret artists like to draw, paint, and get as messy as the open artists, but they'd never let you know it. They doodle in class, but if you ask to see what they drew, chances are they’ll refuse to show you. Sharing your artwork is sharing a piece of yourself, and for some that’s a terrifying thing to do. Be patient with the secret artist. Once they trust you, they’ll probably show you their best work. From there you can encourage them to show more people, and gently push them out of their shell. If they realize that people actually do like what they’ve drawn (which can be equally as scary) and their confidence grows, be ready to watch your secret artist blossom into a full fledged open artist.

While artists may be confusing to you, and you find their vivid imaginations difficult to follow, hang in there. Just once, try to see things through their eyes and just maybe, you'll get a glimpse of the wonderful world they see, and the world they try so hard to share and express through their art.