Art is a Life Raft
Art is a life raft. Many who become artists did so because they found refuge in art from some traumatic aspect of their early lives. I know I did. For me, it was about finding a safe creative space from which I could weather the stormy emotional seas of having an alcoholic father. It actually was through that creative process that I became aware of the healing aspects of it and in the end was able to forgive him and even love him for the man he was trying to be outside the disease. This has been the case for me throughout my life.
I don’t remember her name, but a young blind pianist once said “music is what feelings sound like.” Another quote I recall is “music is the point where the spiritual and the emotional meet.” All art is a window into another point of view. When we experience art it is a communion between the artist and beholder. We get to see through their eyes, and hear through their ears. In fact, all we really have in life is our own particular and unique point of view. I wrote a small verse about it called “Blip.”
My blip is all I have
My fleeting point of view.
I am over in an instant and then
Blip—so are you.
Art has the power to connect us and that creates the potential for empathy which can lead to acceptance which can lead to love and even forgiveness. My creative life has given me solace, inspiration, release, insight, opportunity. I am continually transformed by it. In fact we all create our lives everyday. When you stop to think about it, our lives are just one big improvisation. Even in the routine of daily life we are improvising—our conversations, thoughts, actions, and even emotions are being “made up” as we go along. That’s not to say we can’t plan ahead, but even then we adapt to the moment once it comes. I guess in that regard, life is jazz—improvising through time and space while anticipating and reacting to the changes. We are all artists creating on a daily basis that art which is our lives.
George S. Clinton is an American composer, songwriter, arranger, and session musician. This writing is excerpted from Love, Live, Forgive.
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: What does art as a life raft mean to you? Can you share a personal experience of a time that art transformed you? What creative endeavors have helped in healing you?
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17 Past Reflections
On Aug 5, 2014 david doane wrote :
For me, art comes primarily from the right brain. When I hang loose, tune into my intuition, my primary process, my fantasies and free associations, I'm in the realm of art. I'm not very artistic in music or drawing, but I do see myself as sometimes creative in my expressing myself verbally or in writing, and when I am, those are artistic experiences for me. During those experiences, I am spontaneous and surprise myself. Such creative artistic expressions are a life raft in that they keep me from drowning in dead water. They keep me alive. They are a life raft that breaks the humdrum or hypnosis of the expected way of seeing things and introduces my blip, my point of view, which is freeing and transforming for me and sometimes also for others around me. I am more alive and whole during such experiences, and they help me heal.
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On Aug 5, 2014 Donna Ernst wrote :
Art is sometimes salvation. Two and half years ago I opened a community art studio so any can find- peace, release, acceptance, self worth, creativity and joy. Art was and continues to be my 'zen' and I love giving others an accepting creative place to explore and find theirs.
1 reply: Nilam | Post Your Reply
On Aug 5, 2014 Lisa Hughes wrote :
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On Aug 5, 2014 citizyn wrote :
"Art", one way of documenting things, in life..... seed questions: 1) ..when you have trouble expressing yourself with words, for any given reason... 2) in the fourth grade, when we went to the museum and the immpressionist works were on exhibit, and I felt like I belonged to something when I saw them, 3) I love how it feels when a make a stroke, with a brush, just in general; all the time.
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On Aug 5, 2014 Avriane wrote :
One day many years ago I exited the building where I was working at the time, and stood waiting to cross the street and hurry to some meeting. There was a lot of traffic and I was watching the cars pass. Then, from one car, came the sound of a soprano voice singing some hauntingly beautiful aria. At that moment, the world fell away, everything fell away and it was a moment of pure, pure bliss and heaven. It pulled me from the street pavement and made me wake up fully in those few moments. The day was completely changed..... Grateful, grateful for art and beauty.
5 replies: Citizyn, Jill, Avriane, Jill, Jill | Post Your Reply
On Aug 4, 2014 rakeshpoddar wrote :
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On Aug 1, 2014 Abhishek Thakore wrote :
Beautiful and can deeply connect
To me, all art is perfect
Art gotta be on every bucket list
Methinks each one gotta be an artist :)
The act of expressing my inner reality has helped me keep sane in my darkest hours - and art to me is one of the most beautiful things that makes us human.....Artists are sensitive souls who choose to challenge, question, express and articulate in a language beyond words....
Art is the way....to me life is itself a work of art (a post modern multi-media installation, typically Untitled)
Yes. I agree :)
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On Aug 1, 2014 Kristin Pedemonti wrote :
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