I'm doing a lot of thinking this week - inspired by the naturopath, my upcoming Studio performance for Expressive Arts Therapy and my mentor, Sunny.This week, Sunny encouraged me to consider expanding my thinking about something I'm developing into a piece that involved creating for others. At first I couldn't understand why she was suggesting it. Why would someone want that? And then this little creative spirit inside of me starting dancing and clapping and saying, "Really? Oh, yes, please. I'd love to do that for someone." And in that instant some block and lots of hurts seem to dissolve away.
As I travel the blogosphere it's clear how many people are aching for someone to see their work, their art, their creations and say, "That's magnificent. You are a such an artist. Could I buy that from you? I would so love to have that."
In my heart I think that some of it is the very human longing to be seen. Our creations are so intimately connected with ourselves that when they are witnessed and loved, we feel witnessed and loved.
What do you think motivates this yearning? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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15 comments:
People yearn for connectivity. It's a simple fact of life. In search for that connectivity, art happens. It's an attempt to communicate the difficult bits of life. Emotion, feeling, idea--These are relegated to obscurity, or at the very least, obfuscation.
Art equalizes the playing field and allows people to react, plainly and simply.
That's why we try to get it out there. That's why we create art.
i think thursday's child is on to something with the connectivity piece.
i'm sure there's also a yearning to be seen/heard/felt more deeply along with a desire to be liked/wanted/appreciated. it's a funny dynamic and for me i just have to let go as much as possible and create what's in my heart.
oh, and i meant to say, that i recently picked up a book called "The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World" which may address some of these things. I'll let you know what I think of it as I get into it.
I think that when someone buys my art, they are taking a little part of me home with them... and that bonding is what I yearn for.
i think when someone connects with something you have created, they have understood what you feel and want to share in that moment. that moment is like a treasure of that connection. at least that is what i think :) xo, and thank you dear one for being a ray of sunshine for me.
i think your last paragraph says a lot.
No matter how much support we have, in some respect, we always face the world alone. In art it is similar, we face uncertainty and excitement and loneliness. When the art bursts out and connects with someone it is a very pure form of affirmation mostly unlike what we can get from life. It is a gift for everybody nobody else could give. tfypis
when someone wants to have my art near them it always makes me feel good because i think to myself: "hey, they think like me too!" :) it feels good to connect with others in that way. i feel the same way when i find something i like made by another artist. it opens up a new or comforting or inspiring way of thinking for me.
maybe it is because art comes from the deepest part of our self that we yearn for it to be wanted.
all i know is that this is a great question. i'm going to carry this around with me and see what i come up with. thanks for getting me thinking about this. it's an interesting thought.
I completely agree with the common theme of response. I yearn for my art to be accepted by other, to be wanted by others, because I yearn to connect with other. I long to nurture and be nurtured. I long to hear and be heard. I long to understand that I am not alone, that I can make a difference in someone else's life.
Here lately I have taken to drawing little sketches and sitting them around the house. On two occassions two different friends remarked that they liked each piece, respectively. And so I said, "Take it, its yours! It was made for you!" I love that those pieces that came out of me were for someone else. I need to feel needed :)
This is such a great question to ponder, blessings on you for offering it up and out!
I think I'm more curious as to why you resisted the idea of creating for others and then a voice inside piped up and said, yes please. I want to know what that's about, since that's where your block was.
I'm all mixed up when it comes to making things for others. When it comes to my writing, no way. Not going to do it. When it comes to everything else there is room for negotiation. My writer is such a rebel! She won't even write for me.
I think there is also a sense of being valued, especially for new and emerging artists. If someone wants, or especially wants to buy, your art it makes it feel possible that being a full time artist is a viable possibility.
It's interesting the theme of being liked if someone likes your art. I never would have thought of that, if you see art in a gallery you'd not have any idea who the artist was.
Acceptance, appreciation, connection...knowing someone has something of mine to use, to make them smile, to brighten their day, a little part of me everywhere, that would be amazing.
art,creativity,expresions all come from a singular point in ones mind. it many depict a memory or fantasy,or just a passing urge to put onto or into a form that can be shared with others. this depiction sometimes causes others to see what the artist truely was after but in most cases the art stimulates something within them selves that makes them respond to what they see or hear. this response is powerful enough that they need to have the piece as there own. i believe the creation of the piece is for the artist a release and not a longing to be seen. if the artist touches others and is held up as a bonifided talent then we have to ask to what standard is this work being held to. the greeks believed that beauty was an absolute and parameters could be defined as easily as a measurement. yhe only problem with this idea is that everyone would have to see art and beauty the same. this would contradict all freedom of thought and expression therefore making art a narrow firld of vision. all expression of creativity is truely in the minds of the beholders to decide individually if they believe the piece to be magnificent or artistic. good question James
Glen
I feel so drawn to creating collage because I do feel like it is little pieces of me that i put out there in the world and when someone wants a piece of me I feel validated and loved.
I've said for years that I don't think people want to be famous...they want to be known...to have their authentic selves to be seen. I see a lot of thirst in the blogosphere for that (myself included)...sometimes blog-space is the only place where many of us feel safe to reveal parts of our authenticity that get shunned in areas of 'real' life.
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