Artists May Be Like Athletes…But Art is Not
Athletics Meets Art in the Form of Mario Lemieux (Photo: Pittsburgh Penguins)
Recently Erin Yanacek offered an article on The Muse Dialogue, exploring what she sees as the similarity between her experience as an artist and her experience as an athlete. In the process, she discusses that the topic came out of a debate with colleague Andrew Swensen.
As we always seek to offer the opportunity for dialogue on the arts, Swensen has taken the time to explore everything from dance competitions to Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Add a bit of Coppola’s The Godfather, rhythmic gymnastics, and Mario Lemieux’s goal in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and you come to his argument. And what is that argument? Well, you will have to read on to see if he has been convinced in his response “Artists May Be Like Athletes…But Art is Not”
Virgil once wrote, “Practice and thought might gradually form many an art.” Indeed one wonders how much of artmaking can be attributed to questions of craft, that is, to those things that one can practice and improve with dedication and commitment. Yet how much of art is in the craft? When does the focus on craft impede the expression of the art?
