Accidental art
art as a byproduct of living
The past few years have been an intentional journey towards reclaiming my artist identity: listening to my creative longings, nurturing my right brain, dancing, seeking community and opportunities in the art world, and writing.
Maybe it’s actually no surprise that as I’ve sought to strengthen and claim my artist identity, the definition of what an artist is has expanded and shapeshifted and dissolved into a wide open field.
I’ve come to believe that being an artist is more about availing myself to inspiration and energy that is already present rather than becoming someone I’m not already or make something from nothing. Art making - in all its many forms - is an act of creation. And it’s also an act of listening, seeing, paying attention, disrupting, shifting, and resisting.
There are times when art-making or play or just life feels clunky and forced and mechanical. It takes some discerning to know if it’s time to push through or to pause and set it down. In myself, I can feel when my project management, agenda-making, achievement oriented persona comes out to play. I love her, she gets shit done! But unchecked and unquestioned, she’ll make a lot of things heavy and serious. This includes dancing and teaching and writing.
As I seek to soften and lighten-up, I declared (to myself and now you) one of my core values as ART IS LIFE IS ART. AKA: Art is already happening, it’s everywhere, everyone can be an artist of their life whether it’s named that way or not, regardless of profession, side-hustle, schooling, or productivity.
Last week, I visited the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt in Oakland CA. I know very little about the art of Bonsai, but in sitting with these wise little beings, it’s clear that it’s a practice of dedication, detail, and generational collaboration. There were a handful of trees that started “by accident” - they grew in cans or old pots, untended, just doin’ their thing before being found and cared for by Bonsai artists. Art was already underway (truly aren’t all tree art anyways??), someone noticed and began shaping the tree with expertise and commitment. I’m inspired by this sweet spot of stumbling upon beauty and magic and intentionally cultivating more of it.
This practice of letting go, listening, and seeing art everywhere and in everyone is a devotion to life. What might feel like a big mushy, lovey-dovey shift is actually quite serious and brave. Taking myself seriously as an artist is an act of letting go of self judgement and rigid definitions of what being an artist even is. It’s from this place of radical acceptance that I am building my art/life/love practice (it’s all connected).
Seeing the art of your life is like falling in love with yourself. To love the way you make coffee in the morning, or snooze your alarm, or repeat the same cheesy phrases, or spill pasta sauce on your shirt, or whistle while walking, or cry, or hug your friends.
I can only speak from my life in process ~ I can’t claim to know that much about love or art, but it’s not easy, it’s a practice, it’s a choice. And we can help each other - mirror the love that’s innate in us, see the art we leave in the tracks of our life, and cultivate love for the life we are living right now.
sending inspiration & light your way,
emily