July 23, 2021 Weekly Musings

Featured image: Yellow Iris

When you judge, do you think you are always right?

Of course not! So isn’t it easier not to judge another and just be neutral? Let others be?

I think of my history and how I've learned not to judge others: Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? Matthew 7 :: NIV.

I believe the history of that quote has shifted from the "plank in your own eye" to how you are governed and controlled by not judging and being neutral all the time. I believe this neutrality is all about the grey middle that I've been talking about lately, and the series I have been working on, “The middle is not grey.”

When you judge, you place your value on the object that you’re a judging. It could be it another person or a diamond ring. So, the question about judging should be instead, what are your values? What are the values of the objects you are judging? And how do these values govern or have power over the other?

So what is the truth about judging? Truth is reality and the values linked to the concept of reality are filled with reason. An objective reason that all can agree about. Truth and reason are the pathway to how we know things. In turn, they are the pathway to how we value them and judge them.

So how is art judged? How is it valued? What is its truth? Its reality? If art is not judged, does it not have some value, some truth, some reality? is it anything? No, it can’t.

Art needs to be identified with reasonable truths so that others too can label it and judge it. What should the values, of art be?

Equity

Posted July 20, 2021

Featured image: Flowers Just For Her

What is equity? It seems to be that the only equitable thing lately is to treat others as you wish to be treated yourself. Anything else, you would be robbing Peter to pay Paul. If equity is even a possibility then when it comes to working with others who are so unique and one-of-a-kind, how would that work?

I believe that the most important equitable thing others can do, is not about money, or color of skin, or housing, or jobs. It is about respect. And, as I have stated over and over and over again, it is respect to the uniqueness of the individual, the one-of-a-kindness of the individual. It is about allowing the individual to create themselves. Then, if you value what they create, you will be treating them equitably.

I have a book mark that says, “Imagine a world where we listen to everyone’s stories and learn we are not as different as we are the same.” I have always imagined that when I have read something like that, "Wouldn’t that be nice." But, no, it wouldn’t. Difference is important, sameness is not.

It seems to me that we need to understand the word equity differently.

The Judge

Posted July 21, 2021

Featured image: The Judge

I am sure that you've heard this saying before, "We are a country of laws." And I know I personally have said before that I'm one who doesn’t react well to coloring in the lines or following the rules when it comes to art. So, does that mean I don’t like following the laws? Absolutely not. So how does this work in a creative person like me?

Simple – why can’t there be both – as long as what I do harms no other? And I follow the golden rule, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." I think there can be both. But, when rules and laws are made that unnecessarily control my unique individual freedom then I seem to get in a tither. So how are the rules enforced? How are we governed?

How many times have your heard someone say, "I am not judging you?" But…… It is like saying the act of judging is bad when it really isn’t. Judging is necessary, otherwise the value of things would have not value. And I personally believe that value is important. Is it really possible for us not to judge? I don’t believe so because we have things we believe in and live for. And, they are different from others who also have things that they personally believe in and live for. The key is to respect the difference. We can’t judge for others. That is their job. However, we can judge for ourselves and if we choose not to judge then ….. well we choose not to think.

We always need choice. Personal choice. We need to think to be able to choose for our unique selves. And we need to be able to critically judge differences.

To be able to judge difference – to be able to understand difference, you need to think about what you as an individual value.

For me, I always look for, authenticity when I judge something.

The Difference Between An Authentic Work Of Art And Wall Décor

Posted July 22, 2021

Featured image: Green Apples Wire Basket

The difference between an authentic work of art and wall décor that matches your sofa is the artist. Authentic artists regard their work as a constant progress and a constant upward motion from one achievement to another, a higher one, driven by the constant expansion of their mind, their knowledge, their ability and their creative ingenuity. The authentic artist never stagnates on any level.

The producer of wall décor goes through the least amount of motions possible to just get their job done.

It makes no difference if the authentic artist is highly educated or not. Why? Because the authentic artist is not limited by their education. Rather, the authentic artist becomes just that by their own efforts and their unique spirit. There are overly educated folks who are called artists because the markets decide that they are. They produce work that is popular, fills popular roles like matching the couch, or appeals to those who have a particular view on some political issue. Some of them believe that they have a soul and spirit that speaks for itself, but it really doesn’t. They are merely parasites posturing on popular issues because their abilities as an artist are not authentic.

For me, it is not the degree of an artist’s ability that appears to make what they produce to be about the popular or shocking or current, but it is how they put this ability to use. Is it creative? Does it involve their imagination or original/authentic ideas and how to present those ideas? Or, does it simply produce the ideas of others?