Using
the Force
“True
art is something 'supra-personal', a force which has escaped from the
limitations of the personal and has soared beyond the personal
concerns of its creator.”
Carl
Jung
Ever
wonder why, from Paleolithic cave drawings, to Vincent Van Gogh's
swirling skies, to Ai Weiwei's Lego creations, human beings are
compelled to create art? Something inside propels us into
action—whether it's arranging the furniture in a room, or items on
the surface of a desk, or painting a masterpiece, we are by blood and
bone creative. And when we are in the midst of the creative process,
we enter another dimension. Time is irrelevant; we don't feel hunger,
thirst, or fatigue. It is as though we are taken over by a force of
nature that is not our own.
Van
Gogh noted that the only time he felt sane was when he had a paintbrush in
his hand. For him, the meeting place between mania and depression was
where he found his most profoundly productive state. Which is not to
say that one has to be insane to produce art—one has only to be
free of self-judgment.
I
sometimes wonder whether art—visual, musical, or dance—taps into
that primitive ancestry of the cave dwellers. To a time perhaps,
before humans were so reliant on language to communicate, and instead
told stories through paint and drumming, through fire and movement.
Personal expression, shared beyond the personal to the communal, and
on to the transcendent.
Whatever
it is, I hope you find your outlet. It is a place of sacred solitude.
A soul expression that soothes away the wrinkles of a troubled world.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
*Cityscape
by Jake Philips
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