What does it mean to be an artist? This is a question I often ask myself and my students. Is an artist simply someone who makes objects, or does intention, concept, and personal perspective transform an object into a work of art?

These questions are at the center of this painting. In Greek mythology, the nine Muses are sources of inspiration for artists and writers, representing the idea that creativity can be received, channeled, and transformed.

For this painting, I adopted the visual language of color-by-number and coloring books. These systems provide the image, composition, palette, and instructions, leaving the participant to simply fill in the predetermined spaces. While this process allows anyone to assume the role of an artist, it simultaneously removes many of the creative decisions traditionally associated with artistic authorship. The figure itself draws on familiar conventions of idealized beauty, reflecting the long history of representing the human form as an ideal rather than an individual.

By following these predetermined systems and standards myself, I began to question where creation ends and interpretation begins. If I am following someone else’s instructions, am I creating or simply completing? At what point does participation become authorship? And can an object carry artistic meaning when the original creative decisions have already been made?

Ultimately, this painting explores the space between intention and thoughtlessness, originality and appropriation, instruction and expression. Perhaps the question is not whether I have simply completed a painting, but whether my decision to select, interpret, and transform an existing image is enough to make it art.