Create. Express. Make art. Make Art.
Creation, human expression, dance, theater, costume, music, visual art are all innate to human nature. We all share the desire to make, to create, to express. Repressive cultures, societies, and or family environments may impeded natural human expression, so that we believe only some people are gifted with the ability to create, and make art.
I have heard many people and artists question the value of art in this time--when we seem on the brink of global disaster, when we humans have at last arrived at the point of possible irreparable self-destruction. "How can I make art?" "I want to contribute constructively to the world?"
We should all have the freedom to create and express - unless of course, that freedom impedes on other's freedoms and/or is particularly destructive to the environment or others (now I sound like a bill of rights.)
Art is taking time to look at something in detail. It is a search for a different view-point or understanding. It is the antithesis to the unsustainable, self-destructive drive of the world around us. I now see that there is truth to what one friend used to say, when I myself questioned whether I couldn't be doing something more useful with my life. "Look at it this way," he would say with a laugh, "at least you are not causing greater harm."
I believe, however, that we can change the world in small ways. This is really the only way.
I have questions. Through creation, I obtain a certain understanding, which gives me a certain satisfaction. I feel satisfied, connected to myself and to the world. More questions naturally arise. "The answer" is a human dream to live in a simplified, concrete world. I believe there are no single answers, only variations of certainty and uncertainty.
As most of us live and perceive the world, we see our bodies as concrete.
Create fully, give myself, perhaps find transcendence, "it is a wonderful thing to have a body" (as stated by Olive Bieringa)
