Musings
Reboot: Refresh
I know you’ve felt it. I’ve read it, heard it, seen it with other artists- with people in all professions for that matter: You feel lost, like you’re not getting where you had hoped you would by now. Maybe it’s because you stand in your own way or maybe it’s due to circumstances out of your control. Either way, you’re frustrated, discouraged and uncertain.
Or perhaps this is just me. I’ve felt it. I do feel it, often. But I’m betting it’s natural for most of us to feel this way at one time or another.
We set paths for ourselves and so eagerly start out with a jump in our step. Sometimes we meet the end goal with ease and other times the path seems to meander, feeling like we’re being taken off track, or it appears blocked altogether. Some of us lose sight of that which we so eagerly sought, and resign ourselves to believing it’s unattainable. Others believe it still exists, off there, in the distance and one day we’ll arrive.
I do believe we’ll arrive. But what I was reminded of this very weekend is that you have to keep going, and while you do, it’s good to slow down so you can see all of the liveliness along your path. Your path will intersect with others. Why not enjoy what each the other brings, no matter how long it takes to hike that trail?
Nothing we strive for will come instantly. It may take months, years, decades. But in pressing forward and sharing our gifts with others along the way, so much learning takes place that adds to our own strengths and brings life to a sometimes lonely path. When you arrive, you’ll look back knowing that every step added value to the person you have become, and every step ahead on the next journey will too.
KEEP GOING.
Art and Health
The idea that the arts, or creativity in general, are good for the body and soul is nothing new. In fact, there are a lot of studies around it, especially regarding the effects of art therapy on groups combating disease (i.e. Alzheimer’s) or psychological trauma.
What about art for the artist’s soul and health? Undoubtedly, this same idea applies.
Once, I went to visit a very dear friend and mentor in the hospital only months before he passed away. I’ll never forget seeing him with a sketchbook and a full set of colored pencils sprawled out across a tray next to his bed. When I joked that he never stopped working, he said, “Of course not. It’s like breathing for me.”
Talking with another friend recently, we agreed that even after a long dry spell, an artist inevitably gets an itch to make something if for no other reason than to “get it out.” It feels good.
When I make something, it’s often inspired by a feeling, an emotion or sensation. It may derive from joy, sadness, loneliness, silliness, or in today’s case pure anger- and I needed to get it out.
“Knee,” 2016, Watercolor on 9″ x 12″ paper
“Knee” doesn’t look angry; it wasn’t meant to. But its creation certainly exercised my own anger. And I think something delicate, maybe even beautiful, came out of it.
Whatever it is you like to do, be it sing, write, draw, paint, sculpt, design or perform, go do it. It’s good for your health.
The Hunter and the Hunted: Antoine-Louis Barye, Master Animalier
It’s beneficial to study other artists’ work. And nothing can discount the importance of seeing art in person. Photographs and computer screens just can’t compare. So, in honor of the many creators out there, I’m dedicating a series of posts to artists, active and not, whose work grabs my attention when I wander out to galleries and museums. This post, about Antoine-Louis Barye (1796-1875), will be the first:
“Horse Surprised by a Lion,” Bronze, ca.1857
It wasn’t my first visit to the Baltimore Museum of Art. It wasn’t the first time I wandered through its collection of European Art. It wasn’t even my first encounter with this particular artist’s work, although at the time when I laid eyes on the sculpture pictured above, I hadn’t realized it.
I was drawn to the fluid movement erupting from the lion’s exacting clutch and coursing like electricity through that horse’s veins, through its flared nostrils and finally escaping as a terrified shriek from its agape mouth. What energy, what careful attention to anatomy and detail.
The exhibit text explained that Barye was like a scientist, often studying animals in the Paris zoo and observing dissections. His predatory sculptures depict not only nature’s unrelenting food chain, but many saw them as symbolism for government figures in the brutal struggle for power. In fact, he received several government commissions for monuments in France.
“Panther Seizing a Stag,” Bronze, ca. 1850
Seriously, guys, pictures don’t do them justice. You need to see casts of his sculptures in person to fully appreciate just how precisely Barye articulated every detail of his subjects’ musculature down to the direction their fur grows.
Get out and see some art!
“Lion with Serpent,” Bronze, ca. 1832
“Roger and Angelica Borne by the Hippogriff,” Bronze, ca. 1840