Before I ramble on more about art, I would like to take a side-road into the terrain of creation altogether.
Some might ask, Why are you so hung up on art? Stop taking yourself so seriously.
They would be right. My response is I can’t stop myself. I find art addictive. But it is definitely a lot to do with stress, and I recognize that because I’m sensitive, and meditation is so beneficial to my disposition, so too is art.
So maybe art’s not for everyone. Maybe those more relaxed sorts are happier without it. That’s okay too, though, because someone needs to be the audience.
This all being established, however, it’s not so simple.
Relaxation isn’t my only driving force. I make art to compete as well. Not with others, of course, if I can help it, but mainly with myself, trying to perfect past projects, making new ones the most beautiful yet.
The satisfaction of the journey and the end work are equally marvelous.
It requires thought to figure out how to climb out of the box you were born in. There are levels of genres of categories to transcend, and mosaics of philosophy and wisdom to traverse.
You have to re-imagine yourself constantly, in order to not get trapped by people stereotyping your style, expecting you to re-produce yesterday’s projects like a mule. This is the only way from growing stale, but you must be careful not to mis-imagine yourself.
You will always run the risk of becoming a shadow of your past, a photocopy cast through the veils of time. For in life, the important thing along the way is to make better days for ourselves, and that can be helped by art.
If you mis-imagine your life into a corner for a myriad of shallow reasons, your art will only drag you down, just as art which misrepresents your true feelings drags you down.
Real art, however, will teach you how to live, because it is just like life.
The same principles of making good art can be applied to life as well. For instance, I always make a project with some audience in mind. Whether I care to admit it or not, my idea of good art is art that is gripping and thought-provoking, so I do keep that in mind during my process of creation.
So therefore I have recognized, if I formulate a plan for my daily life, it is best to keep an audience in mind. (I know here some will balk at the suggestion that I do things with other people in mind. It is apparently taboo to live your life by anybody else’s rules anymore. This is why everybody’s single or headed that way, because we all think we’re so independent, but the truth is, we’re in denial, because our most basic nature is being social.)
We really wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for each other, and so it stands to reason we look out for each other.
I found out the truth is, we’re all altruistic. We just want to please people, and be liked.
An agent’s questionnaire asked me, Who do you write for?
I wrote that I write for Other people.
The next question read: What do you want from this critique?
Another opinion, I replied.
If no one else existed, would I still write? I’m not sure I would even have a language, let alone write. Language is intertwined with life-forms like us, separate ones that think together.
I guess I do read my own work occasionally after it is written, but it is still as the writer. I’m still thinking of ways to make it better. I’m not enjoying it purely for the entertainment or enlightenment, although I try to let these things in.
So anyway, I live life like I write, or paint—or play music—and it feels good, it helps. The tenets of my personal taste for art may happily spill over into my waking life, because I still believe in all of it, no matter whether we’re talking about reality or ideas.
For me then, art can be therapeutic, and a tool for entertaining others. But there’s more …
I’ve always wanted to live forever. My parents don’t want to, and I know a lot who don’t—but I always did. Just like some people think ideas are scarce and life gets boring, others find ideas come cheap, and accomplishment is challenging.
Me I always feel close to mastering something I can never put my finger on, certain it’s better than yesterday, but at times needing to take a break, and other times to burst into sprint like all hell for the finish line of some self-affirming art or life project.
I feel like a hundred years is not enough. A thousand would only whet the appetite. A million would be nice, but infinity (always with the option out)–would be best.
I need time to explore all the neurons firing inside. It could take eternity. I knock my skull just once, and fireworks are cracking long into the night.
I study one thing carefully, the whole time tripping around the world between blinks. The imagination pours in at every seam. It must be purged.
So art is a portal to immortality too.
I could go on, but you get the picture. Others have similarly varied reasons for making art. Sometimes it’s for better reasons than mine.
Sometimes it’s to woo someone, or to stay on drugs. There’s a hundred muses for every fool.
Before we go on then, let’s get it straight. We’re not talking about doing art for your sake. You have your reasons, and you can keep them. You’ve bared witness to them, and they are yours. They won’t help anyone else, and so there’s no need in sharing why you write or paint or play.
For the purpose of my discussion here, we’re talking about art for others. This is an easy way of trimming back to the basics, and revealing the essentials of good art. It allows us to focus on just what makes hearts flutter and heads spin.
What is it that makes a work gripping and thought-provoking?
Once we clarify the answer for ourselves, and pursue it, our work will become gripping and thought-provoking, and people will begin to pick it up and enjoy it, and we will finally feel acknowledged by our peers for our craft, instead of incited to snobbery for their previous lack of seeing talent in us.
Some of us, mind you, will hold on to that snobbery long after we’ve become acknowledged, and god bless us for not forgetting how hard this world makes it on artists. A long time ago, we were revered and respected, but in a time that values worker ants of tunnel vision, we have become dangerous beacons of freedom’s light..
Anyway, by keeping an eye on creations growing up to become gripping and thought-provoking, we are ensuring that they do so, and leading good works.
Likewise, if we live our days in our minds’ eyes with imaginary audiences always watching us, and we learn to focus our moments on what’s gripping and thought-provoking, to draw cheers or applause from them, we will inevitably begin to live more gripping and thought-provoking lives.
Thus, from here on in, knowing the same tools you use to make art, make your life, you can cross-reference these different crafts, and draw a new synergistic energy from their mix, in order to reinvigorate your days full of heart–and deeds artful.
So once again now, we shall continue talking about what it takes to make good art, but always keep in mind, I’m not addressing the reasons why you make the art for yourself, but only why you make it for others.
Also, please keep in mind these same principles will later propel your life.
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