12 Queries response

When I learned that we had to read something for photo class, I immediately recalled reading "the history of photography", and began to dread reading the "12 Queries for Aspiring Imagemakers" by Robert Hirsh. However when I started reading it I found that I actually really enjoyed it. Many of the questions asked in the article are questions that I struggle to answer myself, so to have a written answer to all of them was comforting. I knew I would like the article after reading question one and it's response: "Who is an artist?" Whenever I take pictures I think about this question. I like to take pictures, but I don't consider myself by any means to be an artist. My ideas about my "non artistry" were kind of reaffirmed this summer. I wanted to play with different mediums of art so I started to learn to sew. (I'm in the process of finishing my second skirt), and I also took a weekly ceramics class at NCAC. I loved doing both, but I felt kind of defeated one night when one of the expert potters declared that you were not an artist if you couldn't draw. I cannot draw at all. As I thought about it, I began to agree with the potter's idea. In order to draw you need to be able to see well. I can't see well physically or mentally. Aside from my drawing ineptitude, I've never really felt that I have the amount of passion needed to be considered "an artist."  With these ideas in mind, I was really surprised to hear Hirsch declare that "An artist is a person who had decided to create an artist." I love this idea because it doesn't set restrictions on people. According to Hersh an artist is not a label or an occupation, but a mentality. While I still don't consider myself an artist, this definition helped me to feel that the door is always open if I want to be.
Another of my favorite queries was the honest statement, that I've thought a million times over: "There is nothing to make an interesting pictures about in Buffalo." While I obviously don't live in Buffalo, my town contains nothing but strip malls, and burger joints. Finding anything that is even "wabi sabi beautiful" has become increasingly harder. Hirsch presents a new view point on this problem when he states "pictures that affect us have nothing to do with the apparent subject matter, and everything to do with the subsequent treatment of that matter." I think I always thought is subconsciously, but I never fully realized that a picture is not about the subject, but more about what the subject is saying. This idea was the best piece of advice I came away with after reading the article.
My biggest problem was the article was that I felt like some of the answers weren't fully answered. Sometimes it seemed as though Hirsch recited the question instead of answering it. This was most apparent and frustrating to me in the question "How can I learn to "see"?" Hirsch's language was hard to follow, and I couldn't find a sentence in his answer that was an evident answer to the question. I found his language kind of intimidating, and it brought me back to my original dilemma. I found myself thinking 'I must just not be artistic enough to understand his abstract responses.'