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Note from the Atelier September 5, 2026 Hi There Reader... I've recently started looking at jigsaw puzzles as potential collage material. Not whole puzzles, mind you. I'm much more interested in fragments of the puzzle: a tiny figure, an animal, a building or some other little fragment that might become much more interesting when it lands somewhere it doesn't belong. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them yet, which, frankly, is part of the fun. Stay tuned... Meanwhile, enjoy September's best exhibitions and a little musing about what it means to call yourself an artist. Cheers!

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But I'm Not an Artist

I recently met someone who told me they make art.

And then they immediately qualified it:

"But I'm not an artist."

I took exception to that.

Of course you're an artist! You make art.

I had absolutely no trouble telling someone else that. No hesitation. No qualifications. No imaginary requirements they needed to meet first.

Which is interesting, because apparently I have an entirely different set of rules for myself.

It's easy for me to say "I make art." I paint. I make prints. I collage. I draw. I experiment with all sorts of things that may or may not turn into something worth keeping.

But "I'm an artist"?

That feels different.

Turn the activity into a noun and suddenly it feels like you've made a claim.

I'm a painter.

I'm a writer.

I'm a musician.

I'm an artist.

Whoa there. Says who?

Apparently, somewhere along the way, I developed an imaginary credentialing board for nouns. At least for my own.

Recently, I submitted The Promised Land in response to an open call from No. 35 Gallery in London for their international exhibition Water. Not only was my artwork selected (a complete honor!), but I learned I was also named one of their Nominated Artists (a complete double honor!).

But there it was:

Nominated Artist.

Kelly Scott.

I found myself oddly fixated on that word.

They called me an ARTIST.

Then, something else happened.

I had donated some of my work to a recent event. One of the guests, someone who spent his career teaching and creating art, chose one of my linocut prints as his prize.

I was shocked.

A real artist had chosen something I made.

There it was again.

Why was I perfectly willing to call him a real artist? Why did I immediately correct someone else who said they made art but weren't an artist?

And why was I apparently requiring additional documentation for myself?

Maybe that's because nouns feel different from verbs. Saying "I paint" describes something I do. Saying "I'm an artist" seems to say something about who I am.

And that feels bigger.

But I'm beginning to think I've had this backward.

The people at No. 35 Gallery didn't know anything about the path that got me there. The artist who chose my linocut didn't know how many prints I'd pulled before getting one I liked.

They just saw the work.

I'm not suggesting that either of them gets to decide whether I'm an artist.

In fact, I think that's the point.

Nobody does.

There isn't a licensing exam. No minimum number of paintings. No required sales threshold. No committee that eventually sends a certificate saying, Congratulations. You may now use the noun.

Do you make art?

You're an artist.

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September's Don't Miss Art Exhibitions

September’s exhibition picks are staying close to home, with three at the Art Institute of Chicago and one at the Detroit Institute of Arts. And completely unintentionally, they seem to share a theme: looking at something we think we know from a different angle. Cassatt beyond Impressionism, De Kooning through his drawings, O’Keeffe painting buildings instead of flowers. Even our understanding of midcentury abstraction gets expanded a bit.

And there's a small window to visit the Art Institute and hit all three exhibits: go between September 6 - 11 for your art trifecta.

Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism Art Institute of Chicago We know Mary Cassatt as an Impressionist, but some of her most ambitious and experimental work came after the Impressionists held their final group exhibition in 1886. Marking the centennial of her death, Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism brings together more than 70 paintings and works on paper from the late 1880s through the early 1900s, when Cassatt was experimenting with printmaking, scale, materials and increasingly modern compositions. The exhibition also explores her monumental, now-lost mural Modern Woman, created for Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Runs September 6th - January 3rd

Willem de Kooning Drawing Art Institute of Chicago We tend to think of Willem de Kooning as a painter, but drawing was at the heart of everything he did. This first major exhibition devoted to his drawing practice brings together more than 200 works spanning seven decades, including rarely seen drawings alongside paintings, prints and sculptures. De Kooning often experimented with line, materials, tools and technique, which makes this collection particularly fascinating. Hurry though, it only runs thru September 20th.

Beyond Form: Abstraction at Midcentury Art Institute of Chicago Abstraction wasn’t a single movement, style or even idea. Beyond Form brings together 65 artists from more than 23 countries to explore the wildly different ways artists embraced abstraction between 1940 and 1970. Against the backdrop of war, displacement and enormous social change, artists experimented with everything from collage and word play to burning, tearing, folding and layering materials. With works by Ruth Asawa, Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Gilliam, Yayoi Kusama and others, the exhibition expands the familiar story of midcentury abstraction beyond a handful of famous American painters and offers a much more global view of what it meant to make art without representing the world literally. Through October 19th

Georgia O’Keeffe: Architecture Detroit Institute of Arts Georgia O’Keeffe is so closely associated with flowers and the landscapes of the Southwest that it’s easy to overlook another subject she returned to throughout her career: buildings. Georgia O’Keeffe: Architecture brings together approximately 35 paintings created from the 1920s through the 1960s and is the first exhibition to explore the full breadth of her architectural work. From Manhattan skyscrapers and rural barns to New Mexico’s adobe homes and churches, O’Keeffe applied the same fascination with line, geometry, color and abstraction to the built world that surrounded her. It’s a chance to see a less familiar side of a very familiar artist. Runs September 11th - January 3rd

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