The first match of the 2018 World Cup is about to start. On one side are the team representing artists and the other side, technicians.

In their fine new strip of red and orange, the colours of fire and inspiration, are the artists. They represent the fields of fine art, sculpture, architecture, landscape architecture, musical composers and songwriters, writers and poets, choreographers and screen and playwrights

Their opponents sport a new strip in green, the colour of growth and regeneration. They include the fields of art critics and historians, art and sculpture reproducers, builders and architectural technicians, musical instrumentalists and conductors, cover bands, literary critics and historians, dancers and actors.

The whistle blows and Vincent Van Gough kicks the ball skilfully to the left centre forward, William Shakespeare who, almost immediately, is taken down in a foul tackle by Gwyneth Paltrow.

You can imagine how the game continues for yourself. The point I am trying to make is to distinguish between those who create art and those who are proficient at the technical reproduction of art. The reason for this is that I am tired and frustrated of the trend for the technicians to adopt the mantle of ‘artist’. They may have artistic feelings about their interpretation of the artists work, as do critics and historians, but the real artist is always the originator.

An extreme example of a technician, would be a person who produces forgeries of paintings by famous painters. They have the same technical skills as the originator (sometimes greater) but appear to have no access to the muse of their imagination. They usually end up in prison.

When I was a young architect embarking on my career, I worked under an architect called ‘Les’ for six months as part of my work experience. Les designed everything in the style of the nineteen fifties and was not a cutting edge designer. I don’t know what he thought of me but one day one of the technicians ( who produce technical drawings ) came over with some design of his own. Les could see it the design was third rate, as could I. Afterwards I made the remark, ‘Knowing the language, doesn’t make you a poet,’ which caused Les’s eyes to light up with surprise. He had not expected such an insight to come from this inexperienced student.

Later in life I had a similar experience when I took part in a concert in the town I lived in, as a ‘performance performing my original poems. There were a couple of pianists, singers, other musicians. I remarked to the pianists quite innocently how refreshing it was to have some original work in the evening, meaning myself. I had not meant this vainly but just as it says. They appeared quite shocked at the suggestion that their contribution was not of supremely high value. They walked away and avoided a debate with me that probably would have made them uncomfortable. I might have been tempted to point out that you could train a monkey to play the piano.

Learning by rote through repetition and honing technique are the give away s for someone who is an art technician. Take a mediocre ‘boy band’ from any pub or club and spend a lot of money re-branding them and voice training – to produce a ‘media sensation’.

The difference to the false ‘musical artists’ of today and the originators of popular music, is that the originators have careers. The boy band members of today are the supermarket shelf stackers of tomorrow. The ‘Madonna’s’, ‘Bob Dylan’s’ and ‘Beatles’ will be remembered and repeated by the art technicians for eternity. If eternity strikes you as an exaggeration, then consider the works of Mozart, Bach, Shakespeare, the Renaissance painters and architects, the architects and painters and sculptures or ancient Greece.

So please let us not devalue art by giving an over generous pay packet and praise to the art technicians. Let us value those amongst us who are connected to ‘The Muse’ and one day will live for ever in the museums as Artists.