by Caroline Tigeress

Created on: June 22, 2009   Last Updated: June 23, 2009

Unequivocally, yes. To begin to support this statement, all I would do is promote to you the concept that any gifted slight of hand artist is in fact, persuading you that he has skills that are not normal.

Take, for example, David Copperfield. He is an ordinary, blood-and-flesh person that bleeds red just like you or me, but he has such extraordinary skills of persuasion that he is convincing you he is performing feats of magic.

This particular variant of persuasion is ages, and ages old, as evidenced in French paintings during the Raphaelite era (thus we get, in the slight-of-hand trade, the term, "French Drop"). The Ancient Egyptians, too, pioneered such illusions such as the cups-and-balls routine.

All of these are determined to make the viewer believe in something, essentially persuading the viewer that they have skills and abilities beyond the realm of mortal men.

To draw a much more modern correlation to this, I offer the new (circa 2009) television program on the discovery channel entitled Pitchmen.

www.discovery.com/pitchmen

The two gentlemen on Pitchmen are professional hawkers, that is to say, they have dedicated their lively hood, their craft, to the art and skill of persuading you to buy something. It is a science as much as an art, to get the viewer to feel a certain emotive structure so much that they cannot live without that product. That is the power, almost to the point of corrupting our culture, that the advertising industry has in our society.

To further my point, as a professionally trained watercolor painter, I am using art to take a three-dimensional item, such as a rose, and transfer it to a two-dimensional medium, such as paper.

My job then, as an artist, is to persuade you that that object is real. I need to persuade you, create an emotional response, so that you will want to either purchase my artwork, or seek me out for a commission.

To further that platform, I would offer you the perspective of a portrait artist. You might hire one to, say, render a drawing of your dog that may have passed on recently.

My skills must be sufficient enough as an artist that when you look at that image, your mind will go back to the love that you had for that animal. In essence, I'm persuading you to go back in time for a moment, using my art and talent.

This is hardly a debate worth having, when you begin to closely examine the psychology of the advertising industry, the dynamics of sale closing, the concepts of being a commercial artist. Even as a writer, which is simply another form of art, I have persuaded you to read this article to the very last word.

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