Artist’s brains.

Stop me if I’m wrong here, but I noticed something funny about artists a while back, and many of my artist friends have agreed.

I’ve never met an artist who does just one kind of art.

They usually specialize in one kind, or focus on it, but everyone I know who does some sort of art also does others.

I myself am a novelist. That’s my focus. I also draw, drum, and dance. The other arts have come and gone in my life while writing has remained constant, but I love the others and always enjoy doing them when I get a chance, and sometimes feel a deep need to get back to one or the other.

My dance instructor plays bass and writes. A guitarist friend also paints and draws. A drummer in one of my two bands paints and dances. A photographer friend also knits and writes poetry. Another dance instructor posts her paintings and drawings on Facebook frequently, and a sitar player I know takes beautiful photographs.

I’m curious why this is, and if it’s as widespread as I suppose. I really haven’t ever met an artist who doesn’t also do something else. Even the one artist I can think of who does one thing does it in as many different mediums as I can think of. She creates visual art, but she uses oils, acrylics, pens, pencils, crayons, and collage. Are our brains searching for expression any way they can, and only certain forms of art will express certain things? Is there some sort of array of art that most people do, like one for each sense? I have no real hypothesis here, only observation.

It’s interesting at any rate. I very much feel like if I stopped drumming or dancing, while I might have more time for writing, I would have less to write about. Has anyone else experienced this? Tell me.