but you didn't vs but you can
A supposed criticism of conceptual art is that "I could have done that" and the supposed response to that criticism is "but you didn't". Whether or not this conversation has ever actually taken place seems unlikely but also unimportant - the moral here isn't about the merit of art making but rather about gatekeeping - that some people make it and some people don't.
The fact that the line between being an artist and not being an artist is /merely doing the thing/ is a topic that is sensitive to a lot of creative people. It's the reason that most creative industries are opaque about techniques. It's the reason that magicians never tell you how it's done - the secret usually isn't that impressive.
There's a threat that, if other people knew how, that they could easily do what you do. And so many creative people preserve their techniques as a means of preserving the scarcity of their identity.
The fewer people who know how to do something, the less people there are to /merely do the thing/.
Today I discovered the art of Andy Goldsworthy. He makes beautiful visuals using nature as his medium. What he does is pretty simple. But instead of "but you didn't" Andy's specifically invites you to think "but I can".
To me, the existence of Andy's work itself feels to me like an invitation to imitate. I am going to make work like his work. And he'd probably be happy about it.
How do I know? Because archives of his work are paired with techniques, explanations and diary entries. Reading the diary entries gives you an interesting look into his process. It makes it clear that the joy is in creation. It doesn't take away the magic to know how it's done. And honestly, when you think about it, it never does.
The beauty in art - art you can make yourself and art that you can't - is that it is made. It exists. Somebody did it. That's the whole thing.
I don't think it's ever mattered how, or how hard it was to do.
To explain how is the generous thing. It's the egoless thing. It's the thing that we're all doing here.
(Super tired today and doesn't feel like I'm making any sense. Fine by me. Still doing the thing. Just trying to work it out.)