Labels for Art and Artists: Are They Helpful?

Categories are kind of necessary for creating systems and structures, but they can be very frustrating sometimes when you don’t fit very well within them.  

This is the story of my life, honestly.  Especially as an artist. 

I’m not a traditional painter because I have mixed media collage in my work.  I’m also not a contemporary painter or modern artist because my subject matter is realistic and I use oil techniques that nod toward classical methods….  And even in this area, I don’t seem to fit into a particular category….I don’t utilize collage materials in a way that is defined and I actually use a combination of oil techniques that straddle direct and indirect application.  It’s no wonder that galleries, collectors, agents, jurors and shows have no idea what to make of me.   I’m not sure what to tell them. Ha! 

One category that seemed to fit very well for years was that of landscape painter.  Yeah.  That makes sense.  I do THAT….until I started not doing that.   In the last several years, my attention has been drawn closer to the natural scenes that are adjacent to me rather than all encompassing.  Scenes that require me to really look and pause, or I’ll miss them entirely.    So, what do I call this new realm of interest?  Landscape? Botanical art? Natural scenes?  And once again, I find myself without a category that really identifies my art.  

Until I had an impromptu conversation with an engineer in my work space.  An engineer who also loves photography.   He was looking at my work as we talked and he brought up a term I had never heard before.  “Intimate landscape.”  Apparently, this is a descriptive term coined in the 60s  to help photographers, who like myself, had changed their point of view from the vast vistas to closer natural subjects.  

This term made so much sense to me in regard to where my work has been going.  Intimate landscapes are personal, specific, and very nuanced and actually quite difficult to capture.  They edge on abstract as they don’t often have horizon lines to give a sense of ground.  An artist has to pivot and use their bag of design principle tools in a different way.  This shift in subject for me has mostly been intuitive, but as I’ve considered my “why,” I am struck by how this particular path of expression has moved right in line with my spiritual formation and what God has been teaching me.  All last year, I focused on the idea of “Abide” which led to a commitment to be present. With “Behold” I’m going further still by looking with curiosity and intention to understand and see beauty.  

What does anything of this have to do with categorical terms?   I believe my journey in “beholding” is a gift from God in helping me have a better relationship with terms that try to put me or my art in a category.   As I behold, I see that categories have their place, but they are not very helpful in terms of identity, nor should they be used for such.  They help prioritize and organize information to give context and meaning, but beyond that…they lack substance for the uniqueness that lives in us all. We do better to live beyond categories and behold beyond simplistic, efficient terms. Yes, I am a mother.  I am a painter.  I am a wife.  I am a person of faith.  I am a woman.  These categories and terms give a little bit of a picture of who I am, BUT if left to just these categories, this describes a completely different person than who I really am.   Beholding helps me see this not only in myself but also in the world around me.  The layers and uniqueness of persons and environments are myriad.  

So when you and I find ourselves bristling at labels  or deflating because of them, remember, they are not the full story and invite those who are using them to stay awhile and learn more.  Rather than react, ask questions, remain curious, and look at the moment as a chance to behold each other. 

I am best described as me. And to know me and to know my art is to journey with me and experience life through my lens.  Same with you.  You probably fit into many different categories, but none truly describe you.  May you remember to live out your own amazing uniqueness and beauty without a care about fitting into a categorical term. 

Use them to start the story, but never to end them.