WITA KOTO
"I don't know if I'd call myself a fashionist but I'd love to be known as an artist." ~ Wita Koto
I quote these words from my humble friend Wita who studies fashion design at my university. I've been planning to write about her works and her blog for sometime now but I guess I couldn't find the right moment until today. I started with the quote above because I think it acts as a lesson and an inspiration as well to all the people who are trying to do something related to art out their. When I asked her once on why she did fashion and what she's planning to do in the future, she politely answered that she doesn't have a specific answer to it, she might not even do something directly related to fashion but she was certain that she wanted to do art, that she wanted to be an artist. I'd say she is one already.
We live in a world were the society has branded everything. Everyone who decides to do something for a living as a career or just as an enthusiast must have a specific name. You tell a person you're a filmmaker, they'll want to know specifically what your part is in the filmmaking process: Are you a director? Producer? Cinematographer? Or you tell a person you're an artist and they'll directly ask you if you draw and/or paint. I'm not saying having a specific thing to do is something bad, in some cases it's actually important if you want to do a specific job for an institution or a certain art industry (this has to do with an official profession rather than an identity). What I'm mainly trying to say is that what you call yourself, what you identify yourself as defines what you'll work for, what you'll sacrifice to become that person. Wita defined herself as an artist and even though she studies fashion design, she draws/paints (unrelated to fashion), designs, does photography, models, blogs, writes and I bet she does more than what I've written here.
Because she defined herself as an artist, her inner self is free to explore the different arts and might/might not decide to hold on to some of them. This also gives her the strength to have greater creative decisions when it comes to combining the different arts together. She's willing to broaden her horizon very different from if she just decided to define herself as a fashionist. Well, some might say that jumping from one thing to the other might lead to having no definite decision in the end and I totally agree with that. But in this case you don't jump from one thing to the other, you make a decision to become one that defines all.
The main lesson I got from Wita is that we shouldn't restrict ourselves to a specific thing just because society or our families dictate so. Free your mind, try different disciplines, throw some away if you don't find interest in them, intertwine various fields, collaborate with other artists. Restrictions destroy creativity and in the end art is limitless. But if that's not your way, go specific, that's a choice only YOU have to make.
I'll end with a famous quote by one of my favorite DP's Khalid Mohtaseb who said: "Don't call me a cinematographer, call me a filmmaker." Yes he might be a cinematographer by profession but he's not bounded by that; he's a filmmaker by identity.
SOME WORKS BY WITA KOTO
