What the hell is a dilettante?
The Dilettante came to life as a zine in 2018 at the hands of a nineteen-year-old version of myself, wilder and grittier and much less stable. It was born out of a desire to create something tangible, to turn my journals of poems and archive of photos into something that existed in the world.
Its title was chosen to remind myself that, in a society which emphasizes tangible achievements and traditional markers of success, we have all the more reason to engage in creative pursuit purely for the sake of passion and curiosity. Our post-capitalist hellscape has made a career of constructing ceilings that structurally stifle potential and spirit; we revere expertise as the antidote to insecurity, looking to degrees and exhaustive resumés to deem us worthy. While the term “dilettante” has developed a pejorative connotation in the eyes of the cultural zeitgeist, we hold true to its archaic definition: a person with an amateur interest in the arts.
I would consider myself someone with a mess of creative interests without much commitment to any specific craft. I’m not an artist by trade; I studied psychology and sociology in college, have a Master’s of Social Work, and work full-time as a therapist. I have a notebook of songs I’ve written, but I would hesitate to call myself a musician; according to the literal definition, I am a professional photographer, but most days I still feel like a teenager in dress-up with a fancy camera. Imposter syndrome, entangled in an impassioned love affair with Western culture’s obsession with labels and titles as proof of competency, has kept me hostage in an unexpressed self. My silly little brain has found itself riddled by the debilitating fear of appearing unskilled or unknowledgeable, or—even worse—presenting my work seriously only to be deemed embarrassingly amateur by “real” artists.
For far too long, my aversion to failure has kept me from engaging in the things I desire, creative and otherwise. But, alas, the world is so big, and we have much life to live! Over the past several years, I’ve learned to nurture my creative spirit, putting aside my reservations and embracing the vulnerability of sharing the things I create. And so, I reclaim the title of dilettante—not as a scarlet letter, but a badge of honor.
My goal for this publication is to platform artists of all concentrations, backgrounds, and levels of experience, and provide a place where others can share the products of their imaginative spirits. Amidst the landscape of productivity culture, in which art has become yet another industry, I remain passionate about the importance of passion projects. I believe in artistic expression as a process of personal exploration, divorced from capitalism and consumerism, a sacred expression of our humanity. In the words of Kurt Vonnegut:
What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.
The Dilettante is a print and digital publication, created in 2018 by founder and editor-in-chief Victoria (“Vi”) Conway.
The Dilettante 