A Pause for Beauty:
One artist’s journal.
Serve Somebody
Osprey In Blue Preliminary Painting For Hawk In Blue And White (Below)
You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You might be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.
- Bob Dylan, from the song Gotta Serve Somebody
Looking back on the last ten years
What have I learned?
What works?
A creative life is about producing something unique.
It is 65% hard work, and 35% working on the right thing
The thing that grows out of your unique experience and sensibility.
Also crucial, know your tribe.
Who do you serve?
What group of humans light up your imagination?
What group of humans can you pour your heart and soul into serving?
Who do you want to celebrate life with?
Who do you respect and want to learn from?
I serve people who have carefully thought through which values of this culture add to their life, and which limit their experience of life. Fringe characters, authentic people with a minimum of fake courtesy and fake congeniality and contrived social skills.
Thoughtful risk takers. Courage is required to get a lot out of life.
People who take ideas and manifest them through hard work and persistence.
People with imagination, creativity, open mindedness.
Kindhearted, considerate people. There is no point in being a great artist, but a miserable person who is mean to others.
“To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods. See also my book, Thoreau And The Art Of Life
What we, as creative outsiders, need:
Connection with kindred spirits
Mastery, skill
Discipline
Detached perspective
Creativity, imagination
Persistence.
A reserve. Actually, two reserves:
An energy reserve – don’t work to the point of exhaustion
Because when you do, everything starts to go south.
The gods, positive energy.
A financial reserve – something to fall back on
So you can experiment, create
Without needing to sell your work to pay this month’s bills.
And so you can have downtime, time to reflect.
And let your creative friend, your mind, guide you.
It won’t guide you if you are rushed, desperate.
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own, that's got his own
Yes, the strong get smart
While the weak ones fade
Empty pockets don't ever make the grade.
- Billie Holliday, from the song God Bless The Child.
That’s about it.
Fairly short list.
To get there, we need each other’s support,
Encouragement, friendship, honest feedback.
Ideas.
But most of all, friendship.
Positive energy united means one plus one equals three.
