Our lives seem to live us, to possess their own bizarre momentum, to carry us awaySogyal Rinpoche
A busy unusual week with many things happening. Art, work, and time are all themes that have been swirling through my head this week. Art in that I've been in the deep of making it again. Work in that it is no longer about my professional career and advancement. Rather now I find satisfaction in it because it is the means that allows me to pursue my art. Finally time and what it means in finding the balance between working/doing art.
Interestingly enough when ever I talk about my photography, mixed media work or music, the topic that most often comes up is how will you use it to make money and there in lies a dilemma. I've come to realize that I don't want to do my art based on others expectations. That is I want to share the world as I see it and if at some point I'm lucky enough people may want to buy the representation of what I am trying to share. However, this isn't my goal.
Believe me, I am not putting down artists who make their art through the process of trying to interpret what others want from them and filtering it through their vision. If I were in a different phase of life and not long in the working world, I would have no problem pursuing that path. But I have been in the working world for many years and at this phase of my life I am more about the sharing the vision I have with others. In other words my work is a means that is allowing me to create because I can earn my income there and said income allows me to purchase things I need to create art and to take care of the mundane realities of life.
I was inspired by a paragraph in a book I'm rereading entitled "Marry Your Muse" by Jan Phillips....
To be an artist it is not necessary to make a living from our creations. Nor is it necessary to have work hanging in fine museums or the praise of critics. It is not necessary that we are published or that famous people own our work. To be an artist it is necessary to live with our eyes wide open, to breathe in the colors of mountain and sky, to know the sound of leaves rustling, the smell of snow, the texture of bark. It is necessary to rub our hands all over life, to sing when and where we want, to take in every detail, and to jump when we get to the edge of the cliff. To be an artist is to notice every beautiful and tragic thing, to cry freely, to collect experience and shape it into forms others can share.
Interestingly enough when ever I talk about my photography, mixed media work or music, the topic that most often comes up is how will you use it to make money and there in lies a dilemma. I've come to realize that I don't want to do my art based on others expectations. That is I want to share the world as I see it and if at some point I'm lucky enough people may want to buy the representation of what I am trying to share. However, this isn't my goal.
Believe me, I am not putting down artists who make their art through the process of trying to interpret what others want from them and filtering it through their vision. If I were in a different phase of life and not long in the working world, I would have no problem pursuing that path. But I have been in the working world for many years and at this phase of my life I am more about the sharing the vision I have with others. In other words my work is a means that is allowing me to create because I can earn my income there and said income allows me to purchase things I need to create art and to take care of the mundane realities of life.
I was inspired by a paragraph in a book I'm rereading entitled "Marry Your Muse" by Jan Phillips....
To be an artist it is not necessary to make a living from our creations. Nor is it necessary to have work hanging in fine museums or the praise of critics. It is not necessary that we are published or that famous people own our work. To be an artist it is necessary to live with our eyes wide open, to breathe in the colors of mountain and sky, to know the sound of leaves rustling, the smell of snow, the texture of bark. It is necessary to rub our hands all over life, to sing when and where we want, to take in every detail, and to jump when we get to the edge of the cliff. To be an artist is to notice every beautiful and tragic thing, to cry freely, to collect experience and shape it into forms others can share.
Al Stewart, "Time Passages":
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