Language from American artist and writer (6)
I believe the answer is:
arabic
'language' is the definition.
(Arabic is an example)
'american artist and writer' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'artist' becomes 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'writer' becomes 'bic' (kind of pen).
'a'+'ra'+'bic'='ARABIC'
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for arabic that I've seen before include "There's a CIA bar on this language, oddly" , "Common language of Middle East" , "CIA bar on this Middle East language" , "Like numerals one, two, three etc." , "connected with gum" .)