By Kalena Reynolds | Staff Writer
From Beethoven to Beyoncé, one constant throughout history has been art and the great artists who commit their lives to making it.
Three professors from three different Baylor arts departments sat down for an interview to explain what they think makes a great artist in their field.
Mack Gingles | Associate Professor of Art
“If I’m being honest, most of us pursue things that we are good at or come easily to us,” Gingles said. “Art is something, for me, that I can depend on. I know that if I put more time and effort in, it will go well. There are other things, like chess for me, that I love and enjoy but don’t love me back. The more I study and play chess, it doesn’t raise the ceiling too much higher for me. Art doesn’t usually disappoint me, so it has been a rewarding career of sharing my time and pursuit with others, especially students.”
Gingles also said that intrinsic motivation is essential for artists and will highly impact the trajectory of one’s success. He said that one of the reasons we see artists who are excellent at a young age — a “child prodigy” per se — is mainly due to that inner push to create within their field.
“Children who have started practicing these skills, by the time they get to be older, they have those 10,000 hours,” Gingles said. “So by the time you’re in college, and you’re taking these classes, you’ve been treating it like a part-time job for the past 18 years. And you’re pretty decent, and those around you see that as talent, but I think a lot of times it’s just time spent doing it.”
While Gingles said that hours spent doing something are crucial, he also said that spending time creating art without an extrinsic motivator removes the pressure and opens the door to greatness.
“It’s really where time meets energy,” Gingles said. “It’s not just time; it’s where those intersect. So you can’t just be around art. You have to be engaged with it and invested with it over a period of time. And I think if there’s a secret to art making, it is being around it and doing it so much that you never really feel the pressure on any given day to be amazing.”
Dr. Jim Kendrick | Professor, Film and Digital Media, Undergraduate Program Director
“Greatness is subjective to some degree,” Kendrick said, “but to me, it’s the effectiveness of what they create. So if Steven Spielberg is trying to create a film that’s going to move you emotionally in a certain way or get you to feel or think about certain things, and he does that effectively, there’s a kind of greatness and that’s hard to do.”
Kendrick said that great art is the ability to accurately express and portray a vision and create something memorable.
“The really great ones to me are the [films] that stick with you, that you can’t shake, that you can’t forget, that you’re still thinking about days or weeks later, the ones where you can, with the conjure up images that have, like unforgettable moments and images that you can’t forget,” Kendrick said. “To me, those are really the great ones, the ones that really make a sustained impact on the viewer.”
Dr. Sam Parler | Associate Professor of Music History
Parler said that great artists consist of two things: work ethic and luck. The combination of both is rare but ultimately creates a recipe for success in art.
“I think a lot of it is commitment to the craft and just grinding day in, day out — becoming in the world of music, gaining a great deal of technical proficiency, being really thoughtful about that discipline and honing your ability,” Parler said. “I would also say, some of it is sheer, dumb luck and a little bit of who you know and what opportunities are available to you, and are you able to take advantage of those opportunities when they’re presented.”
Aside from intrinsic motivation and luck, Parler said that all great artists convey a strong message in their creations that are formed from their own inner process.
“One thing that you have to have to be a great artist is you have to have an argument — a point that you’re trying to get across to your audience — whatever that might be, some kind of thesis statement to your art,” Parler said.
He also mentioned that community is largely important in nurturing an artist’s talents.
“Talent has to be cultivated, absolutely, and going back to that idea of being a great artist also requires dumb luck,” Parler said. “You have to be in a community, whatever that looks like: it might be your family, your friends or just being in a town or city with a vibrant arts scene and culture. But there has to be some community to nurture that talent, and then there also has to be the personal drive and ambition.”
