Technician or Artist

A name means everything.



There are names that I will never give my children because of certain children at a Boys and Girls Club I used to work at. When making purchases, there are brands I stay away from. I have a long list of positive attributes that I want people think of when they hear my name. Call me crazy, but I love thinking about the connotations of words that a lot of people use without a second thought.



One of the words I've been thinking a lot about lately is "artist." The reason I've been thinking about it is because I'm seeing it more and more in the titles of my church tech associates. And quite frankly, it confused me for a very long time. It confused me because of the connotation that I put with it. I have always thought of artists as people that have a superiority complex, are aloof, and genreally just don't fit in. Why in the world would tech guy want to be an artist?



Well, since the Christmas programming rush is over for me, I have had a chance to sit and think about it. And I stripped the word down to the core, the definition. My favorite definition I have heard so far is "someone that expresses themselves through a medium." Just so we can A/B it, a technician is "someone whose occupation requires specific technical training." The biggest difference between the two is the internal process that occurs. An artist adds heart. They aren't just doing what they are trained; they put their heart into their work.

So what does this look like? Well, in audio, it's pretty simple. I put it this way:
I've been taught how to set everything up and make whatever goes in one end come out the other. That is the technician side of me. What no one can teach me is exactly how I place something in a mix, how I sweeten a voice, how I add any effects--how I add my own personal touch on what I'm doing. That's the artist side of me.

The conclusions I have come to are mostly personal, but I hope you can gain something from them. I should never be just a technician. When I am being just a technician, I'm not using the gifts God has given me. And when I do that, no one gets what they deserve-- the people that hear the mix don't get my best; I am not using God's blessings; God is not being honored as He should be. God gave me a heart. I should use it....ALWAYS! And I have not thanked God enough for the artist's heart He has given me.


So, I'm an artist..... and you should be, too. And on that bombshell, it's time to end this post. Goodnight!