My personal story:
I learn positive values of aging from my art making.
My golden years are an empty canvas or book
that I fill with nurturing care for myself like I care for my paintings.
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Art is a license for me to play, fantasize, and be young at heart.
Art is healing was the most compelling theme in a book I read recently. Since last week's post which was a review of "Disturbances in the Field", a novel by Lynn Sharon Schwartz, I am looking for more stories of the art's power to impact the quality of our lives. One of the secondary stories within the novel was about the main character calming herself by coloring in a children's coloring book after two life tragedies. She hid her coloring books under couch pillows when family and friends came unexpected. During the eighties adults would think she was digressing to childhood. Today public opinion has become more accepting. Big chain stores like Target, Fred Myers, art galleries, craft stores and even grocery stores market adult coloring books. Artist friends of mine are not ashamed to say at times they find coloring books soothing. Art permits us regardless of age to play.
My experiences are reflected in quotes my sister-in-law Debby Wenzel gave me.
An hour a day of art makes me happier. An hour of art per week reduces depression.
In art as in life much can be forgiven if your values are right. Experiencing the world my values have changed over the years. I would rather buy art supplies than most material things. I see beauty in people and the environment in unconventional ways.
Art humanizes people. One example is children learning to play musical instruments and playing in a band or orchestra. Another is the art of cursive writing helps to develop a child's brain. Art is the sublime manifestation of the human spirit. Henry Louis Gates Jr.
On the internet I found this quote shared by Donna Watson.
Art is not just ornamental, it is an enhancement of life.
It is a path in itself, a way out of the predictable and conventional...a map to self discovery. Gabrielle Roth
11 comments:
I value art in my life. But it can make someone as oblivious to what they see as a photograph. The key is feel what is there and when the goal is to capture it in a painting or a photo, the goal changes from just 'being' to creating on a new medium. Nothing wrong with creating but it's no substitute for being. I think to only see what is out there are as a product, diminishes what it was in reality. Just my opinion-- and this is true with writing also where a person sees everything that happens as a possible story or poem or whatever.
Good point to ponder, Rain. Thank you for your probing comment.
I see a difference between seeing with a purpose of making a product and seeing while cultivating the state of mind of being. I thought that acheiving the state of "being" in the moment meant that one was observing what is in the here and now. I thought that I was always in a state of "being observing while creating a plein air painting in place. Painting was a tool in acheiving being in the moment.
Sometimes I am in the moment when I paint directly like the painting of the fields that inspired me. Other times I become more invested in the product as I paint. I am not in the moment when I quit looking at the landscape and try to force a painting to look like it was spontaneously done in the moment.
Well, there is a moment when caught in the flow of creating but it's just a different one than that of looking at nature and being saturated by it. It doesn't need a product. It just is. The painting or book though becomes a product and a separate thing as does the photograph or recording or any other attempt to capture the feel and energy of the moment. I think just being in either state is fine.
Our experiences of being in nature is different. I am happy you are practicing being saturated by nature. I feel the movements of the breeze effecting the flight of the birds and the sway of the trees most strongly as I move a tool like pencil, brush or pen. As I go through imitative movements, I have added to my experience a muscular sence to vision, touch, smell, taste, and hearing.
But you say I have produced a product. Young children are intensely involved in creating but when done they often do not see their work as a product like I do.
I've been with you when you are engrossed in finding subjects for your paintings. I don't know that you feel nature or even events more by trying to capture it or them. I have thought sometimes that you let the need to capture it overtake your being there or sharing it with others. It works for you though and satisfies your needs. I just don't think it's the same for everyone. For some to try to paint what they see means they don't fully feel the moment. If it is otherwise for you, that's your truth.
You know, there are absolute truths out there but many things are subjective and it's what we feel that is true.
Painting on location can make me more acutely aware of the colors and the movement of gestures revealing the stories of the wind and sunlight shaping flora and fauna even carving the inorganic. When I am looking more at the landscape, less at my palette and painting, I derive some part of the satisfaction of being alive that you are describing as being saturated in nature. During these satisfying times I believe I am closer to the state of being there without making or doing. At these times my paintings flow like the paintings come from something outside of me.
Other valuable painting experiences are the opposite of being spontaneous, where I am playing with different ways to express myself, and working over until I have spoiled all finesse. Ruined paintings often spon new ideas.
I recall a time about 30 years ago when you drove a Dodge van to the coast and I set up a collapsible table just off the trail down to the beach at Seal Rock. You decided not to paint like I thoght we would do. I was so engrossed, and couldn't be there joining you in being saturated with nature. I have no doubt I was excluding you. Sorry. I am guilty of turning away from others to paint.
Right you are, Rain, the need to paint what I am experiencing sometimes takes over awareness of those surrounding me.
I remember that trip too but it wasn't a Dodge (Astro) lol. I was happy that day and glad you were painting. I didn't feel excluded that day. The weather was amazing.
I am sorry if I ever made you feel excluded on any of our together times. Though making art enhances quality of life on many levels, excluding others while playing with art may lead to narrowing your consciousness of others.
I have understood that you have a calling, which is different than a job. The difference between obsession and passion can be hard to define. I think you know me well enough that if you made me feel excluded, I'd tell you at the time. We have done a lot of things together over a lot of years and there are bound to be differences in them. I think anything that is intense can end up making others feel outside. Communication is the key. I do tell you when I feel something that bothers me. I have though seen how you look at things. I also appreciate that since I have paintings that were inspired by it; so I think it's six of one half dozen of another. I though have encouraged you to do art when we are together, like sharing beach homes; so I don't think this is an issue for us. Writing can be as obsessive.
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