Art and Artistry

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul. – George Bernard Shaw

Can you remember the first time you doodled something on a piece of paper? Think way back to when you were little and your world was like a colossal field of blooming flowers unfolding petal by petal. Remember the joy of playing with: glue, paints, clay, markers, or a simple pencil and eraser? Lost in the joyous revelry of imagination acts, the youthful spirit drifted atop the unconscious flow. As far as we know humans are the only creatures that create art. It is ingrained in human nature to witness the wonder of it All and want to unveil our awareness through our own artistic creations.

I do not hold many lofty preconceptions of what art is. According to the dictionary art is: … a diverse range of human activities in creating visual, auditory or performing artifacts, expressing the author’s imaginative, conceptual ideas, or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power. On one end of the scale there certainly are masters and on the other end a fair amount of “art”-crap, but the urge to create is the same more or less. The alluring power of the irresistible yearning sparkles from the everyday. The heart fills with indescribable satisfaction as tantalizing insights come into being or simple scribbles. On another level, artistry is expressed through daily adaptations to life’s changes.

Self-expressions frees the spirit. Our choices over time become a personal style or aesthetic. The things you like, the clothes you wear, hobbies, music, foods you enjoy – in a way all these things involve an element of creativity and artistry. We evoke – produce/elicit/summon – our impression of reality through choices / judgments / preferences tempered by a galaxy of unique experiences. This finessing of our surroundings is the underlying artistry of living which we share with all life. And strengthening the personal connections to this bountiful force will improve one’s life immensely.

In the modern era, as science calculated the immensity of the Universe, the message many people heard was – humanity is insignificant in the overall grand scheme of the cosmos. But in fact each of us evokes the Universe into being. We aren’t different from the Universe, we are It. Pick up a brush, needle and thread, pencil, pen… and create. Artistic creation is a blessing. Peace

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