Through My Looking Glass

I wear so many different hats these days I feel like Alice in the looking glass. Besides the making of art, there is so much else artists have to do to keep up with the endless “other” tasks at hand at any given moment. I‘ve never had a great memory but as we move into the “golden” years this doesn’t get any easier. And computers don’t make it any easier; in fact, the problems and glitches of the various aspects of it only compound the act of keeping up.

BUT…the making of it is so compelling and so satisfying, even soothing, that it keeps us going. It transports us to a place that, as artists, we know we belong, where we are most motivated to perform. It’s a place that lies beneath the very essence of who we are – not a complicated place really, just a sheer comfort zone where we have all the freedom in the world to be whoever we are without the imposition of external forces.

And, of course, a place to play to our hearts’ content. Who cares if the dishes are piling up around you, if the laundry is all over the kitchen table or the paperwork has left no room on your computer table! It will get done in between times. Who cares whether or not anyone else values what you do? I love doing it!  It feels fundamentally worthwhile to me. Who cares if some people think you’re a fool to work so hard at something that doesn’t pay the bills?  I’ve worked very hard to pay the bills before in my life but the bills always piled up anyway! The need for money never generated more of it – just more time not making art.

So, now, I’ve found the path of least resistance. Don’t resist it! I just keep making it!

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.

If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.

You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction; a blessed unrest.”

~ Martha Graham

Link up: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/