Your Relationship To Your Art
Have you ever considered that you are in a relationship with your art? That like any relationship there is a reciprocity to it. You have to put into the relationship and be present and loving within it. We consider our relationships with our loved ones, the people in our worlds. But we don’t always consider that we are in relationship with ourselves and our actions and that includes our creativity.
It is a living and breathing connection. It is ever present but we have to acknowledge it, pay attention to it and engage with it to bring it alive. It lays dormant, ready for our energy and focus to look in its direction.
We need to consider the questions, what does my art give to me and what do I give to my art?
It is there for me in moments of joy and peace and moments of sorrow and loneliness. It’s something I can turn towards and it feeds me but I want to reciprocate. Like in any healthy relationship.
I want to show up for it, come prepared. Participate and collaborate with it. Show it respect and advocate for it. I want to stand up for it and see its value and worth and hold it in high regard.
I don’t want to ignore it, be dismissive of it, create with it and then shamefully hide it away as though it’s not good enough to be seen or shared. I don’t want to view it as something that needs to be better before it’s worthy of more time or attention. It’s the other way round. How can we expect our art to improve or grow if we are depriving it of time and attention. It requires our immersion with it.
It gives you what you give it. We take for granted how it’s always there for us to tap into and work with but we don’t want to neglect it to such an extent that we even forget it exists.. Because it is there for us, our confidante, our visual journal, it holds our deepest secrets and shames and cradles them into form, colour and stroke. In the words that are written or the dance moves performed. It gives us life and we must consider what we are giving to it.
How do we behave with it, treat it and how much reverence do we afford it? Our creativity is our calling and the gift that this brings is that it is there for us forever. A calling does not have a deadline or a timeline of any nature. We can ignore it for a lifetime and in our last days decide to engage with it and it will be there. It is patient and awaits our arrival with the same unwavering delighted expectation. It does not moan or berate you for not showing up and it does not hold grudges asking where you have been and what took you so long.
It collaborates with you wherever and whenever you decide. It is incredible to know that this creative calling holds these traits and that we hold it within ourselves. That there is no discrimination and there is no judgement within it.
When we begin to view our artistic impulses in this way, when we see that we are in a living relationship with our art and it is not outside of us we can take a different role in reciprocating. Even if we are not able to actively participate with it, we can still show it respect and acknowledge its presence. We can know that it does not hold us accountable in any critical way and so if we want to show up after an absence of years, it will be as inviting and welcoming as if you have been there daily. It is a love that is unconditional and requires no stipulations. Your art is like you breath, with you for the entire time you are on this planet. It’s not asking you to hurry up and catch up. It is not shaming you for being distant or distracted. It is there with its beating heart waiting for you to see it.
This is not a call to create but to know that your creative calling will never leave you or abandon you. It is ever present to engage and be in relationship with you whenever and however your decide. It’s not going anywhere without you.