Your Life is Art

"I think everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. And the way you feel. Life is art." - Helena Bonham Carter I love the idea of our life being art. Other people, yourself, your actions, and your environments are creative expressions that have meaning, which is what art is. Choices you make daily on how to wear your hair or the clothes you pick are expressions of who you want the world to see. The way you drive, eat, shop, work, and think leaves a cloud of energy, like fairy dust, floating in the air where you've been, bringing a sparkle or contaminating that space. How can we use the idea of our life being art to craft meaning in an often shallow, judgmental world?

Appreciating other people as art- "Some people are artists. Some, themselves, are art." - unknown Treat people with the respect you would any art you are contemplating by seeing them as individuals but without putting them in a box. They may look polished, scary, matronly, unkept, or sporty but that may be a misrepresentation or just a phase. You do not have to like that particular expression of being human to understand that it has value, even if that value is to help you know what you do like. It is easy to think that we know what is right for others, but that is not love, that is not appreciating them for who they are. "The art of making someone feel seen and feel special is the highest art." - writemeanna, posted on pinterest.com/michaelbliss

When we consider people as art, we often think of someone elegant or flamboyant, the people who want attention, but many, if not most, do not. "So many people are shut up tight inside themselves like boxes, yet they would open up, unfolding quite wonderfully, if only you were interested in them." - Sylvia Plath These people are hidden works of art, discovered by you and you need no outside validation to confirm that you love them. Love them fiercely anyway for the feelings they bring out in you and the way they make you see beauty in the unusual or the plain.

Seeing yourself as art- "Art and love are the same thing: It's the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you." - Chuck Klosterman Art causes feelings, what feelings are you projecting? It is important to pay attention to the things you feel drawn to, the things that you love. These become part of a personal value system that is unique to you. "When we listen to certain types of music or soak our eyes with paintings or fill our lungs with poems, it all begins to blend and run through us, quietly becoming part of our blood, flesh and bones. We always carry the art we've loved." - Victoria Erickson Having choices before you let you decide what you identify with. Knowing what you like, you can then craft a vision of yourself and work towards being that person. The most important thing to remember is to be authentic to yourself and not acquiesce to societal expectations (unless that is who you really are.) "None of us are getting out of here alive, so please stop treating yourself like an afterthought. Eat the delicious food. Walk in the sunshine. Jump in the ocean. Say the truth that you're carrying in your heart like hidden treasure. Be silly. Be kind. Be weird. There's no time for anything else." - Anthony Hopkins

Your actions as art—The trick to making everyday actions transform from mundane to works of art is to do them consciously. To do a task consciously, you must put all your focus on it, not turn on autopilot and think of something else. It is being mindful of your actions, the reasons behind them, and the possible consequences that will come about as a result of those actions. "Even the act of peeling a potato can be an artistic act if it is consciously done." - Joseph Beuys This practice is hard at first and requires a great deal of wrestling with your mind to get it to focus on the task at hand.

I will try to apply my art (writing) to peeling a potato, as Mr. Beuys speaks of, and see if I can get you to feel like you are doing it. I select the potato, noticing how big it is, its shape, weight, how many blemishes it has, its color, how firm it is, and how it fits nicely in the palm of my hand. I rinse it under cool water, scrubbing well with a brush. I pick a place to start, place the vegetable peeler against the side, and slide it firmly down the length of the potato, cutting a thin slice of the brown peel. I start another swipe before the first flies off the blade and into the sink. Small drops of moisture fly forth with each swipe as I turn the potato slightly to the next intended location. Quickly, the potato turns from russet to off-white with a few, small dark pits and a black bruise on one end. I insert the pointed end of the peeler near a pit and push lightly while twisting the potato and flick the pit onto the peels. The others soon follow and I am left with only the bruise. I lay down the peeler and pick up a white-handled paring knife. Carefully, I trim off the darkness until it is gone. After a rinse and final inspection, I drop it into a bowl of cool water to await its fellows. (If you managed to make it through that description, and are still with me, I hope you can see where mundane chores can be creative works of art.)

Creating your own world- "I could not live in any of the worlds offered to me... the world of my parents, the world of war, the world of politics. I had to create a world of my own, like a climate, a country, an atmosphere in which I could breathe, reign, and recreate myself when destroyed by living. That, I believe, is the reason for every work of art." -Anais Nin Your world consists of geography and environment, the culture and history of your country, the people you live with and around, your work, school, and home. Many of these factors you have no control over and they can crush your soul. Have a vision of how you would like your world to be and then find ways to bring it about in the spaces that you do have some control. You never know what you might create.

What if other people don't agree with your style?- "Your art is not about how many people like your work. Your art is about if your heart likes your work, if your soul likes your work. It's about how honest you are with yourself and you must never trade honesty for relatability." - Pinterest, posted by Knitting and Crochet Forum My favorite part of that last quote is "...you must never trade honesty for relatability." It is difficult to accept that the things you love, the things you create, the way you look can all be ridiculed and hated by others. Criticism of these things hurts us in a deeply personal way. "People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it's simply necessary to love." - Claude Monet We do not need to find meaning in what we do not understand but we must love the freedom for all art to exist.

To make your life art requires that you are self-aware of what has meaning to you. It means that you have a vision or direction for everything you do and do all things with intention, even mundane chores. It is being true to yourself, accepting your flaws, and being brave enough to live as you want to live, even if no one else agrees. It is appreciating people and places around you as art and drawing inspiration from them. It is allowing yourself to feel, to love, and be free. If you liked the quotes I used in this week's post, I have a link to a free printable quote sheet here.

Love and Hope,

Big Sky Baby