Growing as an Artist...

There, again, has been some talk on other medium forums here and there of the 'need to grow as an artist', usually involving shifting to a different medium, as if, somehow, knowing another medium aids in an artist's growth... yet, that in turn raises the question of what constitutes this 'growth' and WHY?... one can certainly have a gain of knowledge from learning a new medium, but it first ought to be assertioned as to why the chosen medium, and what of this medium one is to hopefully gain in terms of 'growth as an artist' - for mere gaining of another technical skill does not, in and of itself, gain a growth as per being an artist... of course, it is possible the term 'growth' is used in a colloquial manner, in that by utilizing a different, and perhaps more socially accepted medium, one's chances of gaining a livelihood from being an artist is thereby enhanced - shifting to using oils, say, instead of continuing with pen and ink would indeed increase the likelihood of commercial success, so long as one not take in account that there so many more artists utilizing oils and thus much greater competition to getting one's own out before the public to be seen... but, other than a greater possibility of making a living as an artist, is this truly 'growth'?

Sometimes I have the notion that these cries of 'needing growth' actually are cries of frustration, as well as an inability of introspecting to knowing just what it is the artist seeks in being the artist [which, of course, is generally part of the frustration], the frustration being more a lacking of the 'sense of visibility' one gets in having others see and grasp one's works with the same understanding of the world as the artist sought in doing the rendering [assuming, too, the artist consciously so sought]... this brings up the idea of the artist as a 'spiritual visualizer'... even if it were no more than showing a 'sense of life', whether positive or negatively, showing such is making an expression of the artist's inner emotional responding to what is of fundamental importance to that artist - and that constitutes 'in the rough' the artist as a 'spiritual visualizer', even in such mundane visualizations as , say, flowers, where that fundamentality is seen in how lifely it is seen [as opposed to decay], or the colorings used [whether bright or dull, towards purity or muddied, for instance], and /or carried into the more cognitive reflections of metaphorical relations, for instance, where grand landscapes are imbuing potentials and possibilities of greater flourishings to humanity...