ART: tangible materials used, exhausted energy spent, hours lost with little return, unbalanced return on overall investment
The artist within you says this is false. He tells you every creative journey is a worthwhile return on your exhausted investment of material, time, and energy, but you only half believe that.
What if the cyclical process of art was more balanced?
Jessica Dore; a great artist, and new friend of mine is setting out for such a project. Weary of seeing her art only yield a product or a vessel for the energy put in, she seeks to demand a fairer return from her art.
20 hours drawing!
4 hours eating...her drawing!
Jessica will consume the art she gave so much energy to in order to receive a return on the energy she gave. The symbolism is extravagant, but the project far exceeds mere symbolism for her.
She says, "This cycle doesn't always get completed. I am taking control over this deeper energy, this unexplainable force of creation. Instead of seeking validation for the work to feed my artists ego, I am consuming the effort and validating and fueling myself. Taking the thing I love and consuming it the way I have consumed so many unhealthy and superficial things that this contemporary world has convinced me will satisfy and validate me."
It goes beyond art, doesn't it? Think of the things and people and circumstances you invest yourself in. Who and what's beck and call do you continually subject yourself to?
All of these things are necessary and important. We are better people when we sacrifice ourselves for the better of others, but you can only pour out more than you have for so long.
Jessica's project is a process to engage with that universal tension of what we expend vs what is returned to us. Jessica asked if I would join her project from Ragamuffin Ramblings. I was very thrilled to be a part, though very small, of her discoveries.
Keep checking back to see more as more is returned.
I am teaching a workshop on the creative process in March at The Worship Conference. I am having similar feelings as I do when given opportunities to teach God's Word; who am I to teach this? All is grace!
