More Than a Rock

17What Makes an Artist

I began to wonder—I knew I was an artist or wanted to be one—but I was wondering whether I really was an artist. I was doing such ordinary things that I could feel the difference. Most people would look at those things and say, “Well, that’s nothing. What did you do that for? That’s just a wreck of a car or a wreck of a man. That’s nothing. That isn’t art.” They don’t say that anymore.

—Walker Evans

A friend confessed to me his hesitation in calling himself an artist. I’ve met others who were similarly apprehensive about the term, whether because of personal experience with other artists, because of trepidation about other people’s perceptions, or because they did not consider themselves worthy.

Wouldn’t it be easy if there ...