Art and Artifice

Art blazes from the soul. You are an artist. You express your art within your life. Your life’s work flows from the art of balancing creative, passionate anxiety. Art is not exclusive to artists, rather art is the creative expression of life. Living is an art. Art is life. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth. – Pablo Picasso. In this quote, Picasso is challenging the very nature of art. It is untrue to call social media, filter-enhanced, meticulously posed fluff – Art. It is simply artifice – trickery.

If I were called upon to define briefly the word Art, I should call it the reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature, seen through the veil of the soul. – Paul Cezanne

To create one’s own world takes courage. – Georgia O’Keeffe You live each day in an artful way. When you wake you immediately get a sense of what the day may be like. Some days just feel like they should be slept through, others need to be endured, while there are those wonderful days when it seems you ride a sunbeam through the day. The world you create begins and ends in your heart and soul. You must find a way to believe in yourself, to understand the truth about the life you are living. I am sure you have had times when the air felt joyfully alive. And your hear danced with delight. Your spirit artfully created that enchantment. You are the artist of your life.

To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts – such is the duty of the artist. – Schumann When you create the opportunity for a positive world to form around you, you generate a positive light for others to follow. Humans are social creatures. Our societies are built around the interactions between us. Although we do not control all the events in a day, we can control our responses and reactions during the day. The digital, instant communication world is founded upon clever deception. There is an old saying in IT, if you don’t pay for a product – you are the product. Your preferences, choices, path through the information stream are collected, sorted, cross-referenced and used to construct behavioral models which predict and manipulate your next moves.

The interfaces are artfully designed to shape your self-perception. There is nothing wrong with living an artificially enhanced life. We all do in one way or another. But do not create a world upon the artifice. If you, the artist of your life, cover your eyes with these veils of deception, your life will be shallow and unfulfilling. You will become trapped in a never-ending search for the next shiny trinket, the next “latest thing”. When you abandon your art – your real life – you lose yourself to the illusions.

Reality is the richest thing there is, the most important thing there is. Our imagination allows us to live an artificial life that is wonderful, extremely rich, but I don’t believe any artist would dare to say that artifice is better than real life. – Mario Vargas Llosa

Set aside time during the day to create. Create a new recipe, a funny face, a painting, a repurposed piece of furniture, a different way to wash your back. Art is defined as the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination. Use the kindling of your imagination to light the fires of creative art in your life. Strip away those veils of Maya which conceal the true reality. The reality of the divine artist within you.