Erin’s story is all too common. Fledgling artists may be
encouraged to be art teachers or to specialize in crafts with
the handicapped. Young writers may be pushed toward
lawycring, a talky, wordy profession, or into medical school
because they’re so smart. And so the child who is himself a
born story-teller may be converted into a gifted therapist
who gets his stories secondhand.
I believe that if it were left to artists to choose their own
labels, most would choose none.
BEN SHAHNToo intimidated to become artists themselves, very often
too low in self-worth to even recognize that they have an
artistic dream, these people become shadow artists instead.
Artists themselves but ignorant of their true identity, shadow
artists are to be found shadowing declared artists. Unable to
recognize that they themselves may possess the creativity
they so admire, they often date or marry people who
actively pursue the art career they themselves secretly long
for.
When Jerry was still blocked as an artist, he began to date
Lisa, a gifted but broke free-lance artist. “I am your biggest
fan,” he often told her. What he did not immediately tell her
was that he himself dreamed of being a filmmaker. He had,
in fact, an entire library of film books and avidly devoured