A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to speak at the opening of the annual exhibition of the Creswick Artists Group. I searched for a title to get me off to a good start, and that is where the trouble began.
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I thought of one title, but then another arrived and there was a pushing and shoving of more titles, all of which wanted to be used for this talk. So I decided to use all of them, because each one has to do with being an artist. For your delight and interest, allow me to share with you the titles of this talk:
- Water the seeds of joy first
- Reality if the invention of unimaginative people
- When you have a good idea, act upon it
- The baker and the poet both nourish the world
- Life shrinks and expands in proportion to your courage
- The first work of an artist is her or himself
- Don't listen to your friends, when the friend inside you says: “do this”
- Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me
- A first-rate soup is more creative then a second-rate painting
- Listen
- Love your calling with a passion, it is the meaning of life
- Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions
- If you are not working or living on the edge, you are taking up too much space
- How many people on their death bed say ”I wish I had spend more time in the office”?
- Learning is the best healer
- If they give you lined paper, write the other way
- Dear artists, outside of your own head nothing much is happening
I started my talk with the story of how I recently had a conversation with a businessman. When I explained that I was creating art, he told me, and I quote: “Mate, you obviously have too much time on your hands.”
Here are my thoughts on that. Imagine this. Life without art and poetry. I mean the art and poetry of everything. (By the way, when I wrote these thoughts, I accidentally typed: the heart of everything. Interestingly, in this typo lies some truth). The art or heart of cooking, the art or heart of architecture, the art or heart of ceramics, the art or heart of dance, and so on … without “the art or heart” all of these activities would be dead. Meaning they would not inspire, they would not excite, they would not enrich.
Art, like science, is important because it inspires both exploration and greatness in all fields of human endeavour.
The artist, for whom I speak, plays, and through his or her play with ideas and materials, occasionally comes up with a revelation: a beautiful idea, an exquisite object, a great building, an intriguing story or a moving poem.
The artist and poet explore and share the possibilities of magic in an otherwise ordinary world. They show, in one way or another, that there is always another way.
The artist and poet also awaken in us a sense of wonder. Wonder, which is the driver of a creative life. The artist and poet take us on a journey, a special journey, in a world where we are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders.
How then do you attain soul in your art? How can you make your work sing? You work at it. You work at it with attention, with love in your heart and with passion.
Art records with great precision all the movements we make in relation to it.
It leaves an extremely clear fingerprint of the maker and, in that truly amazing way, reveals the skill level of that maker with great accuracy. Art as teacher is a wonderful notion. When something goes wrong, it’s never the art that is at fault, it is always that of the maker.
All this involves careful listening, being active and creative, it does not involve being busy. Busyness in the main hasn't got time for subtlety. Busyness is for people with too much time on their hands.
