painting: "Rising Moon"  by Hans Hofmann

We need a culture of creativity. We NEED Art.

We need art, and by that I mean both making and experiencing art. We need art not in another time, past or future, not when times are better, or more stable, or happier, but now. Art and art-making are not adjuncts to our lives, not extracurricular, or frivolous, but integral to our lives as fully realized, surviving and thriving, beings.  If art and art-making are treated as just another form or way to make a commodity, then, it becomes, or is, just that - production. Art and art-making as creative endeavors are an altogether different experience. It’s the difference between heart and object, intuition and an instruction manual, yellow and purple.

We need art and art-making to inspire and to exercise our imaginations, to move us differently, and to stimulate our creativity. Experiencing art or making art takes us down different paths in our hearts and minds, and our bodies travel different paths as we experience and make art too. We go deeper or differently into our emotions, we use different parts of our brains, otherwise difficult to activate, setting off reverberations in body and mind and community. What do we need in times of trouble? Creative thinking and moving and being. We need people, minds, imaginations that can see and move differently, people who can imagine a better future and, further, a better NOW. Experiencing art and making art increase the flexibility of our minds to see possibilities, to stir our natural born powers to create, to fly into new realms - to “fly” into territory, inner and outer, previously unexplored. Art, when the process is rooted in deep exploration and contemplation, shows us ways not to re-create or resurrect a broken system or past, but to create something that fits this moment, to create anew with learning and seeing and recycled material, to create something fresh and vital out of the ashes, something that is born of now.

Art and art-making are for the feel of the material in your hands, the sound in your ears, the meaning that touches your heart. These open us. And when we are open, naturally, we can receive. When we are sensitive, we can feel, and when we can feel, we understand our impact on everything and everyone in our surroundings and theirs on us. We feel more palpably our natural interconnectedness with all.

Peace, art and lively creativity for the New Year.

Wendy

painting by Hans Hofmann, "Rising Moon"

image found at Hans Hofmann website