> Is a man with a fantastic vision he is unable to instantiate, an artist?

I haven't seen the film but this is the defining part of the "artist" title for me. It's not that he wasn't able to instantiate his vision, but he made an attempt and that attempt had an impact on others. That is the art, and it's all performance. The instantiation doesn't matter so much as a message with receivers. If the receivers of whatever happened with his Dune weren't there, then I guess I would still call it something like a "lost" art. Still art, but unrecognized as such. And I'm not sure that would have mattered to the artist anyway.

An artist, per Steven Pressfield, the author of "The War of Art", is someone who makes art. A painter paints, a writer writes, a musician makes music. So, if a person with a fantastic vision is putting out actual effort towards instantiating that vision, that person is an artist. On the other hand, if the fantastic vision remains purely a dream or a wish, they are not.

By the way, "The War of Art", and its sequel, "Turning Pro" are fantastic books on this topic. These books would be my number one recommendation to anyohe who aspires to be an artist.

Pressfield, no stranger to this tension would describe the sort of tension around identity as a form of Resistance. I just want to mention that he wrote another very motivating sequel to “The War of Art” last year entitled “Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be”. It takes a more practical approach to becoming and _being_ an artist.

Jodorowsky has other films lol

And books and graphic novels… The one failed Hollywood project is a blip in his career, not its center.

Trees for the Forest

Jodorowsky wasn’t able to realize Dune but has a number of films and a time of comics - many in collaboration with the legendary Mobius.

I highly recommend checking out his work.

Thanks, I have read and deeply enjoyed The Incal, as well as some of his films. I merely sought to use the specific example to pose a hypothetical.