I think I am closer to understanding what it means to be an artist. To understand what I am. Most of my artist friends disagree with me on my definition, but many very successful artists have a similar understanding, so I feel emboldened to try it out. I first posted about this (part 1) in a previous blog entry. James Baldwin writes perfectly about the artist (and so perfectly about almost everything. He is a great artist himself.), "Perhaps the primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone." and, "The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through th