Thanks to the help of my writing mentor Julia Cameron….unveiled on the face of your favorite place to hide are five incredible reasons why you’ve convinced yourself to avoid making art:
First! We’ve got to stop by dictionary.com and see what the word “Art” physically means. Seriously! What you see as art compared to what your neighbor hangs on the wall can easily be two separate paths. Now toss in your mother’s addiction to making bright yellow yarn doilies, your Aunts backyard flower beds, sisters desire to sing on America’s Got Talent and the creative world is spinning so fast the idea of stopping to ask for directions is completely out of the question.
Art: the quality production, expression or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.
Did a lawyer write this?
No wonder Michaels and Hobby Lobby have smokin hot sales in the center of summer; make the mediums that bring air to art cheap so that the average doodler can exercise their vivid imagination. The object isn’t to huff and puff your way into a self generated high abusive court system that decides if and what you do is truly art.
The long slender blotchy yellow and brown neck of a goober looking giraffe is art. The maker of that piece definitely has a cool sense of humor. Toss in the Hipo and the Duck Billed Platypus and we’ve got the world’s first episode of Last Comic Standing.
One of the top reasons why an average Joe with ten toes takes his eye off the “Art” game is because the project is too big. I’ll never forget trying to put in a backyard pond complete with exotic water plants and oversized gold fish. My first and second attempt was washed away by torrential Carolina downpours that picked up the plastic oblong chunk of inner solitude and threw it down the yard like a whiffle ball searching for a homerun. I failed to take my time to do it right because…they can do it inside an hour on HGTV.
Reason number two: Artists instantly put enormous price tags on the products their heart and soul delivered. I’ve been kicked out of many galleries for making two types of noise, “You want what for that? Tell me who they are. Give me an incredible reason to believe it’s an incredible investment.”
Because I refuse to slap an unheard of dollar amount of a canvas ignited by my fingertips, a gallery in New Orleans shut down my show because they weren’t making enough money. That moment in Arroe ego history completely collapsed my willingness to paint. I’ve reached two years without a brush in my hand.
See what “Art” does to us! Grrrrrrrr! Wait…that’s the third reason to avoid art. Rather than let the spirit of presentation flow through you…the avenue chosen is an act I call being a two year old who doesn’t get his or her way. By being without the scent of acrylic what am I trying to prove…oh I can win? I’ll show you! Blah blah blah! The way I’ve reintroduced unperfected lines and rainbows of colors back onto my path is allowing others to doodle in front of me. I study their love for letting go which inspires these persnickety fingers to dive nose first into a vat of Elmer’s Glue.
Hot dog! We’ve made it to reason number four: Art is avoided by sound. What? If it’s not perfectly quiet the one doing the masterpiece begins to pout. I totally get it! There must be shhhh in the womb. Then I walk through a festival and catch the brilliant artists painting or crafting with billions of people and interruptions around them completely inspired by their ambition to keep focused.
How can you beat sound? Write or create in a coffee shop. Set up your place of escape in a park and feel the breeze of a passerby as they whisper, ‘Man I wish I could do that.” When I write and practice sharing wedding vows it’s my goal to make the process extremely public because where else am I going to be when passionately delivering them?
I stood in the forest one spring day bringing life to the words printed on a once living tree and up walked a whitetail deer. I’ve stood in offices where the phone constantly rings, rooms where people are tugging on you…uninterrupted art must be practiced not once but often. Radio station Program Director Mike came across as being a total jerk when he’d stand next to me live on the air and punch me, move my papers, rearrange songs on the air then explain, “A true professional will learn to tune me out.”
Reason number five: Art is avoided because those doing it become addicted to teaching it introducing that solid core of creative vibrations to something called burnout. I loved being a black belt in Tae Kwon Do so much that I stopped being the student. I raced to teach others how to perfect their front kick, outside block and form. From the sidelines I’d open the eyes of a lower belt explaining how a student’s front stance was off and if they continued that way balance would be something they’d never own. I honestly thought I was going to be the next great Master and I bit too much off the head of something unforgettable.
Once you’re burned out…the most difficult task isn’t getting back on the horse but rather finding someone to mentor you in the way of healing the invisible pain you can’t explain, it’s just there and it hurts to move in any and every direction. So we give up…or continue to swim in personal pity by asking students to stop referring to you as an instructor. That means every ounce of energy poured into the spirit of a 2,000 year old martial art no longer seems important…rather than fix the problem, you elect to swim in it.
Why do we purchase virus programs for computers? To protect and to fix. How can you mend a broken artist? Forgiveness…
Art is whatever you make of it. If it requires time to close your eyes and dream first...welcome it with open arms but please don't beat it up if what you say behind those eyes doesn't match the object created. Art is a series of mistakes that shape movement. Take the word master out of your piece and let there be light in a cloudy corner of impossibility.
Even silence can be looked upon as being art but something tells me being silent keeps you from being happy. Make noise in the name of art and discover a self others never assumed.
I'll always be your biggest fan!
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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