Last night at the cast party for my “PLAY” class, I ran into Martin from Abandon All Ships, literally. It was 2AM, I had been at a playground doing what inebriated twenty somethings do at a playground in the wee hours of the morning: swing, sing, and slide. Two of us decided to run back to the house. I was stopped in my tracks by this rock-star looking guy. First words out my mouth, “I love your hair!” As he responded I took in the rest of his outfit and the second thing I said was, “Are you an artist?” He said yes, and I began to ask questions. He introduced himself to me and gave me the elevator pitch about his band and pointed out his band mates. I asked if I could take a picture of him, he insisted we take it together, and I couldn’t say no.
Now the question is, how did I know he was an artist? Was it a good guess? Intuition? Or do all successful artists have an innate presence about them? It’s not just the clothes someone wears and how they style their hair. I don’t ask everyone with swag if they are an artist. In my experience, most people with creative and most times public careers exude an air of confidence or importance that draws people towards them. Is this taught from experiences in their careers or lives or is it one of the factors that helped them to get to that position of success in the first place?
