Make the best
art
(your work -what ever you do)
you can
make
today -
for those you’re making it
on behalf of
(and yourself).
Ignore
everyone
else.
ALL OF IT
All of it.
Really?
Yes.
All the
hurt,
pain,
broken things?
All the
soul-crushing,
anxiety-producing,
depression-inducing things?
Yes.
And
all the
love-induced,
look-at-that,
time-stands-still things.
All of it.
Don’t
push it,
throw it,
wish it away.
Hold
all of it -
lightly.
Let it teach you.
All of it.
Really?
Yes.
GET LOST
“Get lost.”
Is this big brother sending you
away
or
an invitation to
wonder,
wander,
stand under
a tree?
See
the cracked bark
like grandma’s skin -
furrowed, pinched, well lived in.
See
the abandoned bird’s nest
like a house hurricane-d,
lopsided and empty -
what a shame.
See
the fresh green shoots
co-mingled with dead, dried out limbs,
like a baby at a wake -
everyone loves him
Get lost
in your
thoughts, ideas, dreams.
When you come back,
tell us what you’ve seen.
DIGITAL
Digits are fingers:
grasping a pen,
kneading bread,
caressing a face.
Digits are toes:
squishing mud,
balancing body,
connecting to earth.
Fingers:
writing,
creating,
loving.
Toes:
sensing,
stabilizing,
propelling.
We live and move,
touch and feel
in a universe of digits,
not
ones and zeroes,
but
fingers and toes.
Perhaps they deserve more attention.
HONESTLY
More honesty
is what I want to
see.
Less: I have it figured out.
More: let’s talk it out.
Less: Final answers.
More: sharing the questions.
Less: This is the way.
More: let’s play.
Because,
honestly,
needing to always have
the right answer
and
taking everything so
seriously
is killing you
and
me.
WHAT YOU BRING
What you bring to
life’s art -
the nuance,
the spice,
the edge,
the place you start -
will not be obvious
at first.
After all,
you spend a lot of time with
you
and you’ve been taught to
fit in.
Don’t give up.
Keep showing up.
SOMETHING NEW - IT'S YOU
I set about creating
something new.
But everything looked
something like
someone else
would do.
There were strokes resembling
this,
thoughts mirroring
that.
I began to wonder:
Is creating magic,
popping out of a hat?
Slowly realization crept up:
other artists have echoes
in every great
work,
what makes it
unique
is the one
blending them
up.
DRAMATURGY
Dramaturgy:
a sort of liturgy,
a divine dance
in which one plays
the part
to flesh out the artist’s
vision.
The Lesson:
wisely choose
your words,
your thoughts,
your daily plots,
for on life’s stage
you become
who you thought
you were only
playing.
ELSEWHERE
“Just be here,” they say.
Sounds easy.
But the fear
of failure,
exposure,
rejection takes me -
elsewhere.
And it feels safer
to
hide there.
But, eventually,
elsewhere begins
to feel
like
nowhere.
And so
I dedicate
every single day
to making the journey
from
elsewhere
to
just
be
here.
BUILT DAY-BY-DAY
I kept
pictures,
quotes,
scribbles,
and notes
in journals and on scraps-
some of a digital nature.
I collected them with the thought
that one day
they ought
become a life’s work.
But I found that
the scraps and bytes
should not be left hiding
in a password-guarded chest.
A life’s work
built day-by-day
is best.