I have a friend who is an artist who recently suggested that I allow for possibilities. Both my writing and my day job are rather cerebral endeavors using words, so it was good to get an artist's take on things. Actually, he said a great deal more than that, but I'm going to really take a look at the one part for now. Now that I think on it, my expertise is in the area of process and his is in the area of possibilities. Together, we might rule the world. However, I just resigned from that position, so I don't think I'm going to be going back to it anytime soon, and frankly, I don't think he has any interest in it.
Visual artists are interesting people. I do art sometimes myself. For me, it's about taking what exists and making it into something else. Repurposing, re-envisioning, recycling, revealing the beauty of something. I never really thought much about how my initial endeavor in art is preceded by both allowing for and imagining the possibilities. That, of course, changes everything!
Art is a form of alchemy and magic, in my opinion, whether visual or being a wordsmith. The absence of both forms are a kind of death that don't lead to transformative process. The presence of either done well is amazing. Yet both start with the possibility of art and the necessity of being open to it.
So, how is it that we compartmentalize out art from our lives? We place it in buildings or admire it in art shows, or put it up around us and change it up again later when the whim to do so comes upon us. It never occurred to me that I'm equally guilty of doing this separation from art until he said something wickedly clever, as he is apt to do.
While art starts off in the imaginative arena of possibilities, it is most definitely a process as well. It's about putting in the patience, time and creative effort. Here I am with my expertise in process and it's the part of doing art I enjoy least! I view at times my life as a process without fully understanding it as being both the possibility of art and the art of possibilities.
If your life were art, how differently might you be approaching it?
