More and more I think of art, the more my fascination towards it grows. This multifaceted and complex phenomena keeps on brining me powerful insights. I keep discovering new angles to look at it and especially now, since I am in my reflection mode, new thoughts arise. Today I had the second day of evaluations and it was beautiful, touching and honest. I think this year was different form others, perhaps the pandemic and the involuntary self-reflection we all underwent, shifted the attitudes students have towards their work. I truly believe that looking at artworks on meta level can provide a glimpse into the collective unconsciousness through analysing the deep code of culture. I see the potential to use art to diagnose our collective psyche, provide a cure and perhaps even healing. Today I was reinforced in this belief.
Looking at my students’ works when they are not developed fully, it is easier for the truth to pour out. There is just so much purity that can be found. Luckily, their art armour is not fully formed yet, their visual language is intuitive and the drive to create can’t be contained. It is truly beautiful and precious to be able to enter these works, their fragile, gentle essence which is willing to be seen, touched and understood. True magic. When they feel seen, the creativity generously pours out into the world. Multiplying the beauty and carving out more space for the being to delve in.
And I say they but it obviously applies for all of us. We all want to be seen the way we are, to be held and accepted. This fuels our life energies and multiplies the meaning in our lives. The beauty of art is that it is public, the intimate longing is expressed openly. And the closer you can allow people, the better the art. In a way, the making of art is a form of sacrifice. Personal comfort is given away for the sake of a higher goal, revealing the moments of truth. Revealing what is the most secret never feels comfortable, it involves risk taking, rejections, ups and downs. The mastery is to keep going, despite the struggle, pain and loneliness. Tapping into that feeling and keep on going. When the beauty is being appreciated and seen it grows exponentially. The joy which starts to form can’t be described in words. That is perhaps the reason why this energy is always looking for a place to go to, seeing possibilities in everything and feels sad when the space for a possibility collapses. Good artists are not learning from their mistakes. Even when rejection, failure or any other unpleasant experience occurs, the work continues. The creative energy starts to look for another source to be channeled through. If we would stop taking risks, art would cease to exist.
I think there is something unstoppable about this energy that keeps on flowing. Connecting people, spreading and contaminating everything with life. As I am writing this, I am becoming aware how abstract all of this might sound. But as I reread my words I feel them resonating. It feels empowering and surrendering at the same time, to be able to tune into the world and become a symbolic voice for our collective psyche. I would like to listen to it more, hear what it says, hear what it needs. Hear what we need. Decoding the contemporary symbolic language manifested in art seems as an exciting endeavour to take on. While at the same time allow the world to flow through and see what will happen.