By Bianca Codiga

Being the owner of Mountain Living Studio does not exempt me from being frequently out on the shop floor and interacting with the different groups of people through the different seasons here in Manitou. Are you an artist too? Well what art do You do? When they find out I am the owner but don't have anything of mine showing in this gallery, there is a strange pause and lack of understanding to what they are asking me. . "Oh...I see" while they now shift mental gears back to talking to just a "regular" person, generally following by a look of disappointment and dare I say it - sorrow

I believe art is born from the freethinking part of the brain, the part that wants to create something. Something that would have a life of it's own, a life through emotion; beauty, hate, love, individuality. Sometimes when there aren't the words, art conveys

Art is a general word like my English teacher taught me, good, bad, a lot, nice, these were words we were not allowed to use in creative writing as they said nothing to the person one was trying to speak to, only meaning something in the mind of the one speaking. Art is a word as wide as the universe in interpretation. Some insist it must make a statement and be controversial. Others use it to create their own radical identities many times becoming as trendy as those they were trying to set themselves apart from. Sometimes Art is a place where those who don't really seem to live with the rest of us can find focus, love and joy, in a world where not much else makes sense to them. Some crave the status and reaction received when "I am an artist" is announced, the awe many people react with being the ultimate gratifying sensation.

For others art is a doorway to financial gain, with their only motivation being how to use a talent to make things to make lots of money - quality and originality not really being point. Those with a true passion seem to not be able to think of anything else but the burning desire to create, to try that new technique, to get back to the piece in the half state and pull the finished artistic life out of it, to make it a perfect child of a place that will only exist in that finished piece. Of course those so passionate must also survive in the world of reality, so many will hope that enough of their passion will sell and allow them the means to continue creating. Oddly enough though, those selling too much and actually making a good living, can then be looked at by the other artists as "sellouts"

I have come to realize that some of the oddest standards by which I have seen people judge each other are held by artists. Those who are the most free thinkers of a society deeming whether or not another is sufficiently unique and freethinking, or if their talents are actual talents. Even the most artistic of artists seem to aspire to show and sell in the wealthier and more well known cities or the fine art centers and museums run by boards, committees and trustees.

So after all this what has settled in as qualifiers in my mind as to what is an artist? Some words that come to mind are passion, love, need to create, color, feel, vibrancy, life, boldness of heart, silence of creation, elusive perfection, laughter, tears, the shattering of boundaries, frustration, triumph, and dreams. In dealing with all the people I have dealt with over the years I know that there are more out there than many think, they aren't always who or what you would expect them to be, and most are happy just to be...an artist.