circulative
The artists path is never one that is straight. The scattered route is filled with endlessly changing horizons, fascinating adventures and an array of diversity. They will experience more, do more, see more and be a part of more than the multitude that simply work to have a secure job, to have income but no passion, security but no risk, duty but no fulfillment, feeling like a caged animal or completely apathetically content with the only purpose in living to do that job they most likely don’t like and earn money to entertain themselves.
An artist, however, is constantly creating, networking, sharing, taking risks, finding ways to travel whether it be through those risks or taking a job for a certain amount of time and moving onto another one regardless of whether the former paid more. For the artist, it’s about experience, passion and a love for the world and all that’s to be discovered in and about it, the stories, the people, taking pride in their work whether it’s designing, building or fixing.. it’s about the thought of what is contained within the marble shell of the would be sculpture or the song that could be with the right notes or the story and characters that wait to be discovered on that blank blinking Microsoft word document. As Michelangelo said, “The sculptor’s hand can only break the spell to free the figures slumbering in the stone.” Yes.
Every day I can thank God, the Master Artist, for making me one as well. I’m finding myself more and more drawn to other creative purpose driven people, whether their art is music, theater, writing etc. Not that I haven’t always but now more so than ever as I step out into uncertain but interesting times and am more vulnerable than ever because as my good friend and editor Dorothy wrote, “vulnerability is the birthplace of joy, creativity, belonging and love.”
There are those who will excel in this world and there are those who will change it forever, or better yet, their art, what they have created will not only change it but live eternally.
An artist appreciates what someone else may not be able to understand. It’s not a constant need for self entertainment but a simple appreciation and awareness, noticing and acknowledging details that are usually overlooked completely by others. Whether it’s the sound of the ocean, appreciating a shadow because it proves sunshine, searching the history of a person or a place, spreading out under the covers of the most comfortable hotel room bed, a deep inspiring conversation or as a great artist friend of mine says, “the feeling when you take clothes out of the dryer and flop onto them and it’s all warm.”
An artist sees his or her art as their passion, child, project, something that they’re creating for a purpose to send a message to mean something to speak something, to be something entirely of its own. It’s out there, all around us, the artist is just the one who has been called to releases it, to put the pieces, scenes, notes, stories, articles together…
The true artist isn’t distracted by what comes as a result of their art such as fame or popularity, nor do they manipulate their power, but desire only the advancement of the art itself, that it alone may become greater and that they, the artist, may become less. The French writer Francois Mauriac said that each of us is like a desert and a literary work, song, performance, work of art, is like a cry from that desert, or like a pigeon let loose with a message in its claws, or like a bottle thrown into the sea. The point is to be heard, even if by one single person.
The artist is constantly curious, recklessly inquisitive and unwilling to settle down. They set sail not always knowing where they’re going or what they’re doing but they’re anxious to leave port and find out.
There are also those who haven’t found their artistic passions or maybe just aren’t sure if they have any. Some people are completely content with the same routine, day in and day out, having no new horizons but staying in one place forever. The artist, as hard as it may be, has to learn to love those people and realize that what they’re doing is right for them just as what the artist does is right for him or her. Everyone is different and they play a role in this world, some more exciting and interesting than others, but we need to appreciate each other regardless of what kind of person we may be. There is the artist and there is the audience. Artists have a special connection with each other, as does an audience. Though they go hand in hand and are both essential for the ultimate performance.
