درسنامه اصلی

Everyone An Artist

Hello VIP members and welcome to this month’s lesson. Now, this month’s topic is a little different. Often we talk about achievement topics… how to get more success in some area, how to use success psychology, different parts of success psychology, different techniques to get more of the results you want in your life.

Sometimes we talk about specific English techniques or methods or learning techniques and methods. But this month, let’s talk about something quite different than achievement, than achieving something. I wouldn’t say it’s the opposite of that, but it’s a complement to that.

The subject this month is art.

All of you artists out there might be cheering, yay art is great, while the rest of you who are not artists, or who think you’re not artists, maybe you’re thinking oh my gosh I don’t know anything about art.

First of all, let me talk about our definition of art for this month. Art can have a lot of different uses in English. One definition or meaning of art is specifically visual arts, drawing, painting and those kinds of media, is what we would call it, are sometimes called art. Art can also have a much wider, more general meaning and that’s the one we’re using this month. It’s the one I’m using now.

With that more general meaning, art is really any kind of creative pursuit, creative practice we could call it. So, when we use this word in a very broad general way, art can mean photography or it could mean film making. Art can mean writing and poetry. Art can mean dance. Art can mean pottery. Art can mean carpentry or woodworking. It can mean any kind of pursuit or practice that is creative.

That’s what we’re talking about this month, that very general broad definition of art. Specifically, my message to you this month is this. You are an artist! We are all artists.

I think there’s quite a big problem in our society, in our culture, our global culture, because I think this is true in most places, certainly most places I have traveled to or visited. The problem is this, the media and schools, in fact. Maybe something in our past have all convinced many of us that artists are a special people. They are special kind of creative person that’s different than everybody else, a very unique, special kind of person, special kind of personality with unique special talents that other people don’t have.

This is the idea we’re given repeatedly in the media, in schools and in many other context. If you are an artist. If you think of yourself as an artist, then maybe you think of yourself as this special kind of person. If you’re not an artist and don’t think of yourself as one, than maybe you think artists are those people, those special people and I’m not one of them. I don’t have the special talent, gift or something.

But see, I believe all of that is quite wrong, and that in fact, every one of us is an artist. There’s this great quote by Hakim Bey, “An artist is not a special kind of person, but rather, every person is a special kind of artist.”

I like that. What he’s saying is that every person is creative. Every one of us has that creative spirit inside of us, that artistic spirit, and it comes out in a unique special way for each one of us, right. Each one of us has our own history, our own psychology, our own thinking, our own feelings and our own way of seeing the world. Because of all these unique things, when we create things and act as artists, we do so in a very unique and special way.

So, you need to think of yourself that you are in fact an artist, in some way. You are a unique and special artist that every person out there is. You don’t have to be a professional. You don’t need to make money from it, but you can enjoy the process of creating and you can enjoy being an artist. The reason I’m encouraging you to be an artist, and talking about this subject is because, in fact, being an artist can contribute a great deal of happiness and satisfaction to you in your life.

There’s a great book called Flow. It’s a nice book. I’ve talked about this topic of flow in the past.

Basically the point of this topic flow, this idea of flow is that as used in that book, flow is a kind of emotional and mental state where, you are so focused, so aware, so engaged, so interested in what you’re doing that you lose track of time and in many ways you forget yourself.

You forget all your own little problems and worries and all the normal stuff that you’re usually thinking about, and instead you’re so totally focused on the moment and what you’re doing, that in many ways you become selfless, your ego disappears. The important part of that state of flow, that feeling, is that it is a very pleasurable feeling. It’s a very positive feeling and it contributes to our happiness.

When you spend a lot of time in that flow state, that state without ego, that state where you’re really in the present moment doing something, and you’re so interested and focused on it that everything else just goes away. It’s a wonderful feeling and it really contributes to our happiness.

In fact, in a lot of happiness studies, they found that this state of flow is quite important for longterm happiness.

That does not mean you’re always in this state of flow, that to be happy you must be this way every hour of every day. It’s not possible for most of us. It just means that frequently, maybe once a day or many times a week that you get into that state and you let all your worries, all your fears, all your thoughts go away and you do something that’s creative and engaging, and wonderful to you. That is that state of flow.

This is why art can be so fulfilling, that being an artist, a creative artist in some way can be very emotionally fulfilling and very soothing. I’ve recently, in my own life, been discovering this. There were times in my past where I thought oh I’m not an artist. For much of my life maybe I’ve identified myself as a writer. I’ve always enjoyed writing and doing some creative writing, but a lot of non-fiction too, so like a lot of people I’ve resisted this idea of myself as an artist for a while.

More recently and gradually over time it’s begun to feel more comfortable to me, and I’m enjoying it more and more and more. I tend to like myself personally, visual arts, I’m giving into making videos, film making and photography, and I continue writing because I love that too.

Let’s talk more about this idea of being an artist, that every one of you, you right there, you are an artist. How can you develop that? If you think of yourself as an artist already or you don’t, how can you explore that and develop it, and actually, gain some extra fulfillment and happiness in your life by being an artist. Let’s talk about it.

I’ve thought about this and I think that the first step, the first principle, the first maybe requirement even, of being an artist is what I call awareness. Some people might call this mindfulness, but it’s an awareness of either, the outer world, the outside world, other people, things, places, nature, cities, just the outside world. That’s one thing you can focus your awareness on and become more and more aware of, and observe, watch and listen to, etc.

Or, another kind of awareness is inner, an internal awareness where you become more and more aware of your own thoughts, feelings, psychology and sensations in your body, all of these things. An inner awareness, which is also a very rich and powerful world, the inner world.

I think most artists focus on one or the other and some, both. This is really the first step, if you think of yourself as an artist or don’t, the first step is to just open your awareness, become more aware, in many ways more sensitive. It’s about developing sensitivity, because I think most people, we get busy in our lives and we lose our sensitivity, our awareness.

So in fact, for example, an average person walking through a city, going to work in the morning.

Many of them are looking at the ground and trudging along; they’re already in their mind and thinking about what they have to do at the office that day when they get to the office or to the job. They’re in a hurry a little and not really noticing anything around them and they aren’t really aware of what they’re thinking, it’s just these kind of habitual thoughts that come to them and that they are always thinking about.

Because they’re going to work so they always think about these habitual thoughts. So there’s a very low level of awareness, and a low level of sensitivity. Now a more artistic level of awareness of sensitivity would be to imagine instead, same situation walking to work, but instead let’s say there was a focused sensitivity to the outer world, so instead of looking at the ground and lost in your head, what if instead you walked more slowly and looked around?

Maybe you picked one thing to focus on as you walked. Maybe just people’s faces, and so as people passed you and you’re walking you notice their faces. Young faces, old faces, women, men, you noticed the lines on their face, the kinds of expressions and emotions on their faces.

You notice their hair and styles. You notice how they dress. You notice how they’re moving, some people are moving very quickly and some moving very slowly.

There’s no purpose to it other than just to become more aware and sensitive to this outer world.

Let’s say you don’t want to focus on people, maybe one day you walk and just focus on the buildings, the architecture. I do this sometimes and I’m frequently surprised, even in cities like San Francisco, Bangkok that I know very well. Sometimes I’ll walk around, more like a tourist, and I’ll look up at the tall buildings and really look at them and be sensitive to them, really study them and see them clearly, not just walk by and ignore it.

I’m always surprised because sometimes I’ll notice a building that I know has been there for years, but that I just never saw before, something really interesting. I’ll look up and see that’s a really interesting building. That’s nice, it’s really pretty. That would be a good picture. Maybe I walked past it 100 times before and never really looked up and noticed it. But by changing my awareness, opening up, I begin to see more and become more aware.

This is how artists begin by viewing the world. This is what starts the artistic journey, to draw something well, for example, first an artists will look at it very deeply. They’ll study it and be very sensitive to all the lines and light and shadow and colors, and they’re really focused and aware of that thing they’re going to draw or that person.

Just by doing that, by becoming more aware, by becoming more sensitive, already your mind will start to get quieter. Your ego gets quieter and weaker, takes a little nap and you already start to feel that feeling of flow, that feeling of connection and openness and awareness. It’s a very pleasant feeling. I think it kind of heals our souls or something it’s good for our minds.

So awareness, and of course I mentioned inner awareness and that is another thing you can focus on instead. You could maybe just sit down in a garden or on a bench or in a chair or in your office, wherever. Instead of focusing on the outer world you focus on the inner. You can close your eyes and focus on your breathing, which is a type of meditation. Notice how your body feels. Do you have any pain anywhere, any small pains? Do you have any tension? Where are you relaxed in your body? Where are you tense? Where are you warm? Where are you cold? How does your breathing feel?

What kind of thoughts are going on in your head? Are you thinking a lot of crazy thoughts or is your mind calm? What kinds of emotions are you feeling? You can sit for five to thirty minutes just noticing, not judging, your inner world. This is the first step to being an artist of any kind.

Now, artists don’t just sit and notice. Maybe that’s what meditators do they just sit and notice and become aware, but an artist it’s actually a creative process, an active process of doing.

I think the next principle of being an artist, in my opinion, is something called open heartedness.

It means an openness, a willingness to share. Another great word in English would be sincerity, which means you’re not trying to pretend anything. You’re really just opening something of yourself and sharing it with other people.

Now, in many ways what this means is you’re sharing your world. I discussed in the beginning that every person is a unique special artist and unique special person, because we each see the world a little differently. We have different ways of thinking, feeling and acting. So, what does an artist do? An artist shares their own special unique way of seeing and feeling and acting.

By doing that, by creating different pieces of art, works of art, they let other people see how they perceive the world and the first psychological step to that is just to be open and share. Share your world view. Willingness to be open, see a lot of people are closed, they’re afraid to share, their feelings for example. Maybe you’re scared or worried about something, something frightens you and you don’t want everyone to know that so you hide it.

That’s not an artistic feeling. The artistic feeling would be the opposite. It would be to show that, to let people know this scares me, I’m afraid of it. Or, I love this, I think this is beautiful or whatever. It’s this attitude, this feeling of openness and sharing your world, your inner world, outer world, etc.

The next step or component or principle of art or being an artist, in my opinion, is an attitude of playfulness and curiosity about the world, as well as a willingness to explore. Art as opposed to meditation is a very active process. Yes you’re aware, you’re noticing and you’re sensitive, but then beyond that you’re actually doing things. It’s a playfulness. It means a willingness to try lots of things.

I think this is what stops a lot of people, because again in our cultures we often have these beliefs that we have to be good at everything, so people become afraid. I don’t want to try drawing because I tried it in the past and I’m not good at it. Or, I’m not really an artist, etc. But an artist will get in there and play, and in fact, many famous skilled master artists have done this over the years.

There are many examples, for example, of master painters who also tried other things. They’ll try pottery, making statues, photography, film making, all kinds of things. Maybe they aren’t very good at everything, but there’s a general willingness to explore, play and try new things.

I encourage you to do that. Try different things. There are so many ways to be an artist and explore creativity. You can do it through writing, poetry, writing stories, non-fiction or journaling.

There are more visual arts like drawing, painting, photography and film making, all those kinds of arts. There are crafts, leather working, woodworking, metal working, making jewelry, the list is endless.

Just try lots of them. Enjoy them. Enjoy the process of creating and playing more like a child. I think artists tend to keep alive that childlike curiosity and playfulness. It keeps you younger mentally. I think it keeps you younger physically as well.

So playfulness and exploration, key component.

Finally, the fifth principle or thing to do is actually doing. Do… artists actually do art. They make art they don’t just sit around thinking about it they actually do things and make things. Every week, even every day possibly, set aside some time just to do something creative to get into that flow state. It could be something different each time. You might try drawing get some books or courses on that. You might try painting for a while. You might try poetry or writing. You might try making jewelry, metal working, photography, whatever it is it doesn’t matter, play around with different things.

The point is to do something. Do something creative each week. The more you do it the more confident you will be, and become. You’ll actually start to gain some skill, especially in the arts that you enjoy and that you really keep doing. I think you’ll start to find what you love, things you aren’t interested in and those that you enjoy quite a lot.

Do practice art. That’s how I’m going to leave you right now. In the commentary I’ll talk more about specific things I’d love for you to do this month. Generally, just think about yourself now.

Define yourself as an artist. Say yes I am an artist. I’m a special kind of artist, everyone is.

Start to dream and imagine and play more creatively in your life. I will see you next time. Have a great month. Bye for now.