For me Art has been a lifelong journey. I declare that art is more than important; that doctors can save lives, but artists can change them. It is not a passive activity, nor does the work exist in a passive state; it is a manifest exchange between artist and audience.
Virtually everything that is made is first in debt to the world it comes from, and secondly a herald of its time and place. Art engages every discipline of human knowledge, and I find artists to be among the most capable and informed people I have known.
Universal, art serves many purposes. Through it we enter into a kinship that transcends time, culture, and place. If it is first an act of exploration, art is also an act of revelation. Things may appear that are below the surface of our waking minds, a kind of channeling of a collective consciousness. Both a lesson and teacher, it can also be a prayer. Or an intense focus that penetrates the mind beyond its confines, as impermanent as a breeze or as lasting as stone. Or it can simply be a dream.
I find a moment of discovery that is sublime in each mark that changes every other before. It is a ballet of balance, power, and will. Visualizing and intellectualizing blend with visceral bursts and action in which everything I am comes into play, conducting an exploration which remains a record of the process and event.
It is hard to imagine not having these experiences in my life. They are powerful and moving and deeply satisfying. They speak to a need that is never completely answered, thus I return again and again in my seeking; in making art. The release is great enough that it can become the reason for being, everything else is a detail supporting this moment. Keeping art in my life is not a sacrifice but enables what is most important to live in the world through me.
And this is the real key, that we are making the world, each of us daily. With our words, actions, thoughts, and deeds we are creating the world that we experience. These acts of mindful creation are meditations, raising awareness of life, and hopefully those of others around us.
The rewards for its practice can be felt directly to the heart, and our hearts transcend all limitations.
Art transforms lives. Its ripple becomes a wave, changing whole communities and economies. It has the power to uplift, inform, and inspire, reflecting back to us our highest selves. I have experienced the shift of troubled neighborhoods into thriving centers of culture and commerce. As an educator I have seen art change the direction of young lives, re-engaging the disenfranchised, and empowering them with opportunities to excel.
Art has the power to transform one kind of experience into another; in this regard, artists may act as healers, re-creating beauty. In this respect, experience is a seed, and its fruit is what we share as art. The garden resonates into landscapes, our greatest gift to share.
Not all art is serious, nor should it be. Some is for learning, for play, for work. But there are times when all of our life has prepared us for the moment that happens next. The moment we believe we are born for, where we are complete and holy, and fully present and alive.
Art turns the feast back into the field and feeds the world.
