BEing Human

I remember so clearly the day I started to write this blog. In 2020. I had done some research about why art was important, ranging from a developmental to a healing standpoint, but also from the perspective of history and contemporary society. 

I remember in early March 2020 watching people gather in France dressed as smurfs. "We must not stop living... it was the chance to say that we are alive," mayor Patrick Leclerc said when there was massive criticism for the gathering.  This expression showed a basic element of being human and so the gathering despite pandemic lockdowns and mandates was serving as a protest to maintain their humanity…I was inspired.

I started typing…and what came out was surprisingly angry. I will spare the emotional dump—Hooray—but I will say that initially writing about why art mattered uncovered for me, and, I would guess,  many artists around the globe, the fear that our work, our professional efforts over decades, our very presence could just be shut down and deemed non-essential. And what was coming out was a plea, albeit defensive, to continue to value art. I decided to let it breathe for a moment because I could sense the wave of evolutionary transformation beginning to flow.

 Here’s the recap:

In the past 15 years, I have heard many perspectives about art. 

As a yogini and spiritual aspirant, I have heard by a number of teachers that art is an egocentric pursuit and should be dropped if one wants to truly pursue realization. 

As a healer, I have heard from other practitioners that art is only something to be enjoyed during times of prosperity and peace. While art is important for healing the spirit, art is separate from healing the body and mind. 

As a tax paying member of society, I have heard from people of authority that art should only be pursued if it can be monetized. Which lets face it, unless you exist in that 1% of artists who  “Make it”  you are deemed a class-less starving artist working from a passion that fuels your soul and not for a paycheck. 

As a creator, I have heard from professors and fellow artists that art is our voice. For these people, art is like breathing. I suppose I fall into the latter category. 

Looking back, it makes sense why I felt angry and fearful back in March 2020. All my life, the message I received from people around me was that art was a luxury. Not a way of life meant to be pursued over time. And suddenly, the world was shouting that same message through a deafening silence. It felt imposed and my existence felt threatened…

See, for me, movement was my first language. I grew up in a Hispanic, Catholic household where words were common but also cryptic. I was the last of three children, and the quietest. I often felt drowned out by the noise of the everyday hustle and bustle.  I have memories of hiding behind my mom or sitting in the car overwhelmed with physical sensation just because of what I was experiencing in my environment. It was as if the movement bubbled out of me. I was comforted by the silence of movement but also used movement as a way to process the energy in my body hoping no one would see me! 

I knew from an early age that dance was something that would never leave me, and so I set off to make it my world by begging my mom to send me to dance class when I was 10 years old. At the time, she actually wanted me to be a piano player and told me if I quit piano I couldn't dance. I was heartbroken. Still…I danced…for hours in the garage until my feet bled. I think eventually my parents got the message. Not only did dance free me, but it gave me an outlet to connect with other gentle and powerful minds. I was choreographing and teaching by the time I was 14. After Highschool, there was an expectation for me to go to college, but the only thing I wanted was to dance. Imagine how thrilled I was when I discovered a dance department at Texas Christian University. 

Literally

Changed

My life. 

Somewhere along the way, there became an understanding that being a dancer was different from being an artist. Yes dance itself is an art, but a dancer is a tool. There is artistry in how a dancer interprets music, the subtle nuances of expression, but ultimately, a dancer is like a color or a paintbrush an artist chooses to use to express an idea. It is important, therefore, to be able to become that idea. That is where the art comes in. One must forget his or her personality to embody an idea. It's not an escape. It's a sort of transcendence. This is different from learning steps and keeping the body “in shape.” Finding that distinction takes practice and  is what I'm interested in here.  In order to fully grasp the point, I must expand and share with you the bigger picture. Would you like to take a ride with me?

The Big Picture:

What is an artist?

From the dictionary we get this definition:

An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, the term is also often used in the entertainment business, especially in a business context, for musicians and other performers (although less often for actors). 

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the older broad meanings of the term "artist":

• A learned person or Master of Arts.

• One who pursues a practical science, traditionally medicine, astrology, alchemy, chemistry.

• A follower of a pursuit in which skill comes by study or practice.

• A follower of a manual art, such as a mechanic.

• One who makes their craft a fine art.

• One who cultivates one of the fine arts – traditionally the arts presided over by the muses.

It feels important to define for you what the word “artist” means to me. I actually feel quite limited by the word artist. People have a lofty preconceived notion of what an artist is and what their lives are like. In fact, being an artist is difficult and sometimes a lonely path. So it is absolutely important that we look at what art is and why it matters. 

This leads me to my study of prehistory and religions focused on the divine feminine. Art was a function of these societies that basically acted as the glue. In times of prosperity and peace, the communities would regularly gather and use art as an expressive way of storytelling and therefore passing down tradition. Dance, song, and primitive visual art is documented as far back as time has been recorded. Art was an integral part of life. But what is most interesting to me is that elements of what we now call art were also found in worship. So, in times of war and famine, the spiritual women of the tribe would retreat into the forests and dance or sing to their Gods as offerings for peace, protection, abundance, and knowledge to be given to their people.  They harnessed the power of the mind, used their bodies and voices in ritual fashion. Hence, in some cultures, we have Gods and Goddesses who are patrons of the arts. See, each art form corresponds to a sense organ governed by a part of the body. For example, light and color for the eyes, sound for the ears, dance for the sense of touch. In ancient times, these senses were revered as windows to the soul or extensions of the divine itself. So to appease these Gods and Goddesses was to be in harmony with beauty and nature. In some religions, art is a primary way teachings are transmitted.  Back then, and really not until the 1600s, the word artist wasn't used to describe a person, although artists certainly existed. People using the medium of art, dance, or song only did so to express ideas, traditions, or to explore the natural world around them. Art was a way to capture or record something from their daily lives. There was no money or notoriety in being an artist. It was a calling. It was something that had utility value to the community, and in many ways was an extremely natural part of being human. So it feels appropriate to examine this way being human in terms of art in today's world.

Three important points stick out for me:

Children

Nature

Mastery

1. When observing small children, the first thing to emerge often before language is a play with movement, color and sound  which we call dancing, painting and singing. Look closer and it's obvious that what children are doing is communicating in the absence of words in a world that is too complex for their developing brains to fully comprehend. They are using the  fundamental language they know. They are not artists by any conventional societal standard because they don't have any training or any intellectual cohesion. What they have so naturally is a lack of inhibition, honesty, and curiosity which in my book are hallmark qualities of a human engaged in learning.  Art is absolutely an instinct perhaps second to our survival impulse. Not so that we can become famous or live eternally (as those spiritual teachers imply and therefore poo pooed), but so that we can simply connect with our loved ones, and be heard and seen. Belonging is a survival need and art was historically an avenue to fulfill that need.

2. Look around you. What do you see? When was the last time you were awed by a sunset, a full moon, wild flowers…a dying tree? Nature is the supreme artist. For a long period of human history, the primary objective was to understand and record the natural world. How it functions, why it functions and then to capture or harness its energy. The field of science was born. For much of this period, if it couldn’t be proven through the scientific method it wasn't worth studying or believing in. This field of science grew to include phenomenon of nature such as the weather, the physical elements, gravity, physics, and now quantum physics among other fields of study. The field of science is constantly evolving as the human mind evolves by its own discoveries. The human body including all the systems that maintain its function have come to be its own field of study as well. If we go down this rabbit hole long enough we come to the study of the mind and the hard problem of consciousness. Things can get very esoteric where the field of science ends and the mystery of nature begins. The point is that nature creates a sort of harmony that both comforts and fascinates us. It's simple and predictable only because it's unpredictable. It’s awe inspiring and for a time was deified. Historically speaking, there are countless artists who have been inspired by nature and made a name for themselves in their field based on their study of nature through their art medium for example, Leonardo Da Vinci and Santiago Ramon Cajal, and Anna Atkins. As humans, we are drawn towards nature. We want to emulate it and learn from that harmony. Nature itself is an ongoing and spontaneous work of art that has no human author, yet is ever inspiring and life giving. 

Which brings me to my last point:

3. In a contemporary fashion, the word “Artist” is used to describe a person using a particular field to bring about some type of transformation or expertise. Think it through. Who can you call an artist who is not actually working with paint or movement or sound and light?

Albert Einstein

Elon Musk

Nicola Tesla

Sigmund Frued

Mahatma Gandhi

Martin Luther King Jr.

I could go on but the point is, at some point, the word artist became synonymous with “pioneer, visionary, genius, trailblazer, master” “Ahead of their time” is also a phrase I've heard associated with artists held in reverence by history.

What I find fascinating is that the function of art through prehistory for me speaks to the heart of humanity, and the scientific discovery and artists of such fields speaks to logic and reason of the human mind. History shows us that both are necessary to give an accurate range of the capabilities of the human being.  Method and exploration; heart and mind. Dare I be so bold as to state that the spontaneous and unpredictable beauty that is produced by living on the edge where these two forces of mind and heart meet is called art? That where the two meet IS the field of art and one practicing this type of meeting is an artist regardless of what tools are being used?

My boldness takes me back to that 1%. It is rare for a human to pursue a field to the point of mastery. It takes time, effort, consistency and an immense amount of support. The hard reality is, in our capitalistic society,  becoming an artist is not generally a realistic pursuit. And what's worse, for some who are on to something really life changing, censorship comes into play and artists are shut down for many reasons across many different influences that are based on money and competition. So many people shut down their innate creative instincts in order to “fall in line” with the collective standard.

And now we’ve come back full circle to the point:

Why Art Matters.

My hypothesis is that art itself is a measure of a society’s well being. Creativity is a hallmark for innovation and progress among a society.

Similarly where there is dissent there is art.

Where there is discontent there is art. 

Where there is revolution there is art. 

Where there is joy and bliss, there is art. 

The artist becomes the voice for the collective whether he is using a highway overpass as a canvas or on a stage in Paris. 

To be human is to be expressive in some way. We are all creating daily. Our minds and bodies are equipped with the faculties to create. From the time we are able to stand, we are being encouraged to dance. Why? To connect with joy. From the time we are able to communicate ideas, we are encouraged to express ourselves in words. Why? To connect with intelligence. From the time we are able to recognize beauty, we are encouraged to capture it through some medium of light or sound. Why? To connect with value. To be human is to be engaged with art in some capacity in order to learn and grow, to connect and share with other humans. Art, like everything in our society, has a value system. Each artist creates based on what they value. Naturally then, not all art is for everyone. But, everyone can be for art.

The defining question, it seems is “What do you value?” 

I value empathy. Courage, curiosity, and vulnerability. Nature. Heart centered connection. Resolution. Harmony.

I could go on…but I think you catch my drift. 

The point for me is that my artwork is full of what I value. My artistry becomes a laboratory for me to explore concepts and ideas that I have yet to embody. It becomes a safe place to share experiences and qualities I have integrated with like mind. My art becomes an offering to others. My art mirrors my life, and is full of what matters most to me and how I see the world.  I recognize that not all will resonate with what I produce as an artist, but for those that it does resonate with, my intention is to share a snapshot of the range of my humanity with the express desire to connect. To distill that humanity in a beautiful moment that drops the construct of “Yours and Mine” so that we can meet on common ground. Where we are just human. No labels. No class. No restriction. No judgment. Just human.