Art comes in many forms, from the culinary arts to the performing arts.
Art has managed to weave itself into the fabric of our everyday lives.
Every type of art can take years to learn and decades to master.
Writers are those who have dedicated themselves to the literary arts, but does this make them artists?
Are Writers Artists?
Yes, writers are artists.
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, an artist is a person who creates art using skill and creativity.
The dictionary even includes writing as one of the examples of art.
However, writers aren’t the first people to come to mind when people are thinking of examples of artists.
Instead, most people point to painters, illustrators, sculptors, and musicians as more common when considering examples of artists.
Perhaps the idea that a writer isn’t an artist comes from the thought that writing isn’t an art form.
Most people see writing as a chore that they’re forced to do for school or work, but writing can become a relaxing hobby for those who shake the expectations from previous writing experiences.
Another reason that people may not see writers as artists is that most people only consider the visual arts and the performing arts to be the only “real” types of art.
For the same reason, other artists like chefs aren’t seen as artists either.
There is a little element of art in everything a person may do in their daily life.
While a text message may not be a work of literary art, creative writing and even research papers can be art if you use enough conscious skill and creative imagination.
Most writers show their artistic tendencies more as they become better at their craft and begin to personalize their writing pieces.
Another definition of an artist is someone who is very good at whatever they do.
There can be a difference between the writer of a series or topic and the artist of a series or topic.
The person who may write a story will normally not be the same person to create the art for the story.
That’s why collaboration between artists is so beneficial.
Is Writing Considered Art?
Yes, writing is considered to be one of many forms of art.
The traditional categories of art include literary arts, visual arts, graphic arts, plastic arts, decorative arts, performing arts, and architectural arts.
Each type of these arts requires creativity and skill in order to complete the projects they work on.
Visual arts, plastic arts, graphic arts, and performing arts are the most recognizable out of the traditional art categories.
Meanwhile, literary art and architectural arts are often not even considered to be art by those who may not be as invested in the artistic world.
Visual artists, graphic artists, and plastic artists are the ones who are most typically referred to simply as artists.
The visual arts include painting, drawing, design, sculpting.
The graphic arts are extremely similar to visual arts, except that it only pertains to paintings, drawings, and designs that are done on a flat surface.
The plastic arts include sculpting or creating models.
Performing arts is another extremely recognizable and the artists use themselves and others to perform the artistic pieces that someone has created.
Examples of the performing arts include theater, music, and dance.
Writing falls under the category of literary art.
Any piece of literary work requires conscious skill and some degree of creative thinking in order to form different ways of communicating ideas to your reader.
There are many different types of literary works, such as fiction, nonfiction, dissertations, reports, computer programs, and poetry.
The more rigid a writer must be, the less the artistic representation flows.
However, it may be difficult to see the art in factual texts and harder to express creativity.
This is why many people have a difficult time seeing writing as an art form.
When it is harder for people to see the artistic process, it is harder for them to believe it is art.
What Is Art?
The definition of art is “something that is created with imagination and skill that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings.”
This is why there is such a large variety of creations that can be considered art.
Over the ages, the definition of art has changed, although the word doesn’t go as far back in history as one may think.
Neither the ancient Greeks nor Romans had a word to describe something as art.
Instead, they chose to use the “techne”, which means to master a craft or skill.
Another definition of art aligns more with what the ancient Greeks and Romans believed to be art is the idea that art is a skill that is acquired by observation, studying, and experience.
A similar definition of art would define it as an occupation requiring skill or knowledge.
The most common idea of art is visual art.
Visual artists, such as painters or illustrators, are the careers that most people are referring to when they call someone an artist.
There is art everywhere you look, even if you may not be able to recognize it.
The least recognized traditional category of art is architecture.
Architecture takes a deep understanding of both interior and exterior design while also demanding more practical skills such as construction and the understanding of how physics affect buildings.
Art is a way for artists to express their ideas, perspective of the world, or communicate emotions or other qualities.
Sometimes, the idea that artists want to communicate to their viewers is purely informational or factual.
The artist has to use their creativity to figure out a way to help the viewer understand information, such as the photos used in textbooks or answering questions that have been nagging at a potential reader’s mind.
Literary Art Versus Visual Art
One of the biggest reasons that people don’t see writers as artists is that they can’t visually see the creative process.
For writers to write something that is different from what has already been written, they must use their creativity to come up with new sentence structures and new ways of helping the readers understand a topic.
Painters are easily seen as artists because people are able to see what goes into painting.
People know that a painter must take their brush and their paints to a canvas in order to create the painting that the public is viewing.
Most people’s experience with writing comes from their education, where the writing process is taught as a formulaic process, rather than a creative one.
Young students are taught what to write and what words to use instead of discovering new words and sentence structures to help improve their craft.
Just because there is a basic formula that should be followed doesn’t mean that all creativity is completely thrown to the side.
The best-written pieces use a combination of formulaic planning and creative influence.
There are many instances when the other forms of art are just as formulaic as informational writing.
For example, the painters who refurbish the paintings you see in museums would still be considered artists.
Although these painters aren’t taking a single creative liberty and are keeping these paintings as close to their original forms as possible, they still use an intense amount of conscious skill.
If the public could see the process that takes place in order to create a literary work, they’d see the artistic side of writing much more easily.
Another problem that writers face is that they’re expected to be good at multiple types of arts.
Can A Writer Also Be An Artist?
Yes, a writer can be another type of artist while also being a literary artist.
However, it is important to remember that just because someone is good at one type of art doesn’t always mean they’re good at another.
There are many cases where someone would do both the writing and illustration for a literary work, such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Elizabeth Bishop, and Victor Hugo.
However, most writers would rather hire visual or graphic artists to create illustrations for their literary works.
It can be difficult for a writer to find someone to create drawings or designs for their work unless the writer is able to pay for their services.
Most writers will wait to hire a visual artist until they believe they will make some money in return.
Even in the world of visual art, not all artists are capable of doing the same types of projects.
While a painter may be able to create beautiful works with paint and a brush, they may not have the same level of skill when it comes to drawing with a pencil or pen.
The most successful artists are the ones who tap into the many different forms of art.
Those who understand how to use many different mediums in order to give the viewer a sense of beauty or emotion will be able to wield all of their preferred art forms better.
For example, having the understanding of how to properly draw an animal will allow the same person to be better at describing that same animal in text.
In the arts, there are many skills that are transferable between the arts.
Writers, painters, designers, and actors may all be doing vastly different activities, but they are all using some degree of creativity and copious amounts of skill.
Writer Versus Author
All authors are writers, but not writers are authors.
The relation between the two titles is similar to how all writers are artists, but not all artists are writers.
There are certain requirements that must be met by a writer to be considered an author.
An author is someone who has created pieces of literary work that have been published and publicly credited to the creator of the writing piece.
Meanwhile, a writer is anyone who writes any piece of literary work.
Authors have the copyrights for the literary pieces that they’ve written and released, but a writer doesn’t have any type of firm ownership over their pieces.
Authors look to have books that are credited as one of the pieces they’ve published, while the goal of the writer is simply to relay ideas or information to the reader.
While both an author and a writer may write professionally, the end goal is where the biggest difference lies.
There are many different types of professions for both writers and authors.
Those who are looking to be professional writers may have their eyes set on eventually publishing their own literary pieces, but there are many different jobs that they can do along the way.
These jobs include blog writers, copywriters, ghostwriters, content writers, creative writers, journalists, and technical writers.
Unlike writers, authors are generalized into fewer groups.
There are fiction authors, nonfiction authors, collaborative nonfiction authors, and poets.
Most authors are categorized by the genre of literature that they write.
When a writer wants to publish their work, they will often hire an illustrator or graphic designer to help make their literary work more applicable or to help portray concepts, such as having someone create graphs or dioramas.
Most commonly, an author will hire an experienced illustrator.
Writer Versus Illustrator
It isn’t common for the writer of a piece to also be the illustrator.
The skills that are required to write and the skills required to create visually pleasing pictures are two vastly different sets of skills, with very few similarities.
Good writers have to focus on the content of their writing, which can include a long list of skills that depend on the type of writing they’re doing.
Content writers have to be adaptable and quick to learn, while fiction writers need to be able to have excellent story and character developing skills.
Writers also have to excel at the language they’re writing in, understand all the grammatical rules, and have a lexicon that can accurately help a reader understand what the author is trying to say.
Illustrators need a completely different set of skills.
Illustrators need to be able to create images that are appealing and accurately portray what the author and illustrator are trying to describe to the reader.
Illustrating isn’t as simple as just doodling what the artist sees.
It takes many years of training and practice to be able to draw images that are aesthetically pleasing and accurate.
The illustrations that visual artists create take countless hours, even with simple designs.
This is why it is best when different types of artists come together to create a project.
Different types of art speak to the viewer in different ways.
Some people may understand an idea better when shown images, while other people may understand ideas better from the written word.
For example, a textbook may not be able to describe a topic in a way that all students can understand just by reading, so they’ll have an illustrator create a chart to help communicate the function, purpose, and importance of an idea.
Art Is Everywhere
The more you learn about art, the more you realize that art surrounds you.
While writing may not be a visual art, literary art, such as writing, is still considered one of the traditional categories of art.
Literary art is often the inspiration for other types of art.
There are many plays, movies, songs, and paintings that are inspired by literary works that came before them.
The majority of songs by Rush, a popular progressive rock band, are inspired by pieces of literary art.
Without the artistic efforts of writers, many of the stories that are known and loved throughout the world would not exist.
Writing has allowed people to hold onto stories and information that has been passed down through the ages, allowing people to learn from the past and present.
There are many types of artists who may not be recognized as artists by the common eye.
However, fellow artists understand the creative process that goes into even the most fact-based projects.
Art is an idea that involves as soon as people find a new way to hone their skills to a level that allows them to communicate a vast array of ideas and topics.
With each fresh innovation that comes into the world, a new form of art can be born from it.
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