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Everyone An Artist - Commentary

Hello this is A.J. and welcome to the commentary for this month’s lesson. Let’s talk about being an artist. Let’s talk a little more about this idea that everyone is an artist. What does that mean?

What’s another we could say that? In other words, we are all creative. Creativity is not a special talent. It’s not inherited by only a special few. To inherit means to get something from your parents, genetically.

Creativity is an inherently human trait, it’s inherently human. So inherent, slightly different pronunciation but very close to inherit. Inherent, there’s a little bit of an ‘n’ sound in the second one. To be inherently human means that it’s basically human, that it’s true for all human beings, inherent. Check the text if you need to see the spelling difference between inherited and inherent.

I love that Hakim Bey quote that I mentioned in the main lesson. The artist is not a special kind of person but rather, every person is a special kind of artist.

That idea encourages us to open up and explore, to experiment and to play creatively. Now some people will have no problem with this. They grew up thinking of themselves as artists, as creative, but many people, perhaps you, grew up with different beliefs. Perhaps you had a bad experience in art school or in an art class at your school. Perhaps you tried to draw at some point in your life, but you could only do it very badly.

This happens too many. It happened to me, and unfortunately a great many people then, make a faulty assumption. They make the assumption that they are, in fact, not artistic at all. Of course, an assumption is something you assume. It means it’s something you believe without evidence or with insufficient evidence.

So let’s ponder this for a moment. What is art? Of course ponder means to think about deeply, so let’s ponder this question. What is art? What is it exactly? People have a lot of different ideas about what it is, but let’s think of it in a very basic way. Certainly art is more than any one particular skill, such as drawing, painting, photography or whatever. It’s more than just that.

Paint, pencil, ink, wood, stone, words, photographs, cloth and clothing, video, film, all of these are only the media of creativity. It’s just the stuff we use for creativity it’s not the actual art.

Art resides not in the media but in you, in yourself. Art is the creative spirit and sensitive awareness in your own mind and heart, and that is something we can all develop. For me, art is intimately connected to meditation. Because both are practices of heightened awareness and sensitivity. And to be intimately connected means to be closely connected.

I think of artistic expression as a means of communicating awareness and sensitivity and perception. The artist first enters into that state of heightened awareness and sensitivity. Then, through some medium, attempts to capture a bit of his/her perceptions while in that state. What does all that mean? Perceptions is basically what you see, what you hear and what you feel.

Medium is the singular of the word media. Media means more than one, medium. Medium is one and I know you know large, medium and small, well, this is a different meeting of medium.

This meeting of medium just means it’s some thing you use to communicate with… newspaper, book, video, drawings, each one is a medium of expression, of communication, and if there’s more than one we say media, which is the word you’ve probably heard more, media.

Let’s think about this for example, the painter Saison. I like his paintings they’re very beautiful and very colorful. He went off to some tropical island and painted the women there, the trees, plants, all very colorful. Let’s think of how he did that. What did he first have to do? First, he had to enter into a deep meditative state. Meaning, he observed very carefully. He observed very deeply, the subjects of his paintings.

He noticed the rich colors. Here rich just means very powerful, very, very colorful. He noticed also his own feelings, his own feelings about the subjects he was painting. Then he made paintings to try to show what he saw and what he felt. Saison through his paintings shared a bit of his view of the world. A good poet does the same thing, using words instead of paint.

Sadly the world of art has been presented to us as a world of special elites, the top 1% of creative people. The rest of us are encouraged to be passive consumers of artistic commodities like, movies, TV shows, books, etc. A commodity is something that is sold cheaply, that’s available in large amounts. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying other people’s art, it’s a wonderful thing to do. But when we become completely passive, when we are only consumers, we lose an important part of our humanity.

We are meant to be producers. We are meant to be active participants in life. We are meant to be creators. That’s why, when you let go of fears and insecurities, you find that creativity is so much fun. I could make a lot of deep psychological arguments to convince you to be an artist, but I think the simplest one is best. You will be happier and you will have more fun in your life.

When you explore and play creatively you don’t worry much about skill. You don’t overly judge your work. Instead, you totally immerse yourself in the process of creating. In doing so you in fact lose yourself for a while. In other words, you forget your feeling of being a separate ego.

Ego is that feeling we all have of I, I am separate from everything else. That’s ego.

When you are very creative, when you get lost in the creative process, you can forget this feeling. You merge with the process of creativity. You forget yourself and you focus totally on the moment. This is a very pleasurable feeling. Why do you think children play so much? Well, adults still need this too. It’s not good for your soul to be too serious all the time. So this month I will cajole you to become an artist.

To cajole means to somewhat nag or push, to convince. So I will cajole you, I will push you a little bit to become an artist. You are to forget all worries about skill or judgment just choose an artistic pursuit that interests you and start creating, right now.

Yes you can get some books to help you improve. Sure, take a class, but only if it’s light, fun and non-judgmental. But most of all create everyday. If you decide to write than write everyday.

Write short poems. Write descriptions of people or objects. Write short stories. If you choose drawing than sketch and draw everyday, it doesn’t matter what it is, just do it. And, very important, do not judge the result. Do it badly it’s okay. And if you find yourself harshly judging your projects, I have a very simple solution for you. Destroy them after you finish.

First, that word harshly… if you find yourself harshly judging your projects… harshly means very negatively, in this situation.

So destroy your artistic projects after you finish them, that’s right. Draw, write, photograph or whatever, do the best you can. Fully focus on the process of creating and when it’s done, immediately destroy it, whether it’s good, bad or mediocre.

Why do this? There are a group of Tibetan artists who make incredibly beautiful Mandala’s from sand. A Mandala is kind of a religious design. They use sand, little bits of colored sand on the floor. They spend days and days meticulously, which means carefully, creating these beautiful works of art. When they’re finished they allow others to enjoy the work for a short time.

And then, they sweep everything away, all gone in an instant. This beautiful work of art that they spent all this time and effort to make, they just sweep it away and it’s gone. Now for the Tibetan’s this is a symbolic reminder of impermanence. Impermanence is the opposite of permanence. Impermanence means everything changes, nothing is permanent. So their art is a reminder to them that everything is impermanent, nothing lasts forever.

It’s a reminder to the artists that the process of creating the art is more important than the finished piece. I’d like you to adopt this mentality, to have this mentality, this attitude. The measure of your art is not the finished project. That’s what we’re always taught, especially in the West. In our modern industrial societies we’re taught the finished product is what’s important.

BS, especially in art.

It’s not the finished product; rather it’s the quality of your mind as you create it. The more focused you are. The more playful you are. The more joyful you are. The more aware you are and the more sensitive you are, the better your artistic practice. Claim this as part of your identity. Say it to yourself yes, I am an artist. I am a poet. I am an actor. I am a designer.

Whatever kind of artist you want to be, you are indeed your own kind of unique and special artist.

Enjoy being creative this month, and for the rest of your life.