October 22, 2021 Weekly Musings

Announcements:

Going Home IV Receives Award

I am pleased to announce that my work, "Going Home IV" received the Nancy Bellman Award at the Montana Watercolor Societies National Juried Exhibition.

Blogs:

Concept of Individualism

Featured image: She Calls Herself Clover

Is the concept of individualism, the individual, self, dying like art and the concept of artist is dying? Is the concept of freedom changing?

How is the identity of the individual and the identity of art formed? Does our culture and or society design our concepts of I, art and freedom? Is that why they are always changing? Perhaps it is the way that the concepts of self, art, and freedom are changing that causes me to think that they are dying. Perhaps I should just say, "The concepts of self, the individual, art, artist and freedom are changing, and I don’t like they way they are changing." Rather than saying, "They are dying."

That would just not work for me because I sincerely believe that for any one of those concepts to exist, there has to be an absolute notion of a sovereign self – and that is what is disappearing.

Every morning I start my day with all things natural, all things, yes. I surround myself with all things beautiful as I ponder the wind, the rain, the trees, flowers in my garden, critters scampering about, the sky and the clouds. If the "I" in me is, "Yes, Yes," as I surrender to the natural, then I am in harmony with myself and the concept of self. When that happens, I am able to be free. If the answer is, "No," then I am chained to something that is not allowing me to surrender and is trying to govern my self. I need to figure what that is that is causing the "no." Then, I need to work around it, not surrender to it. I need to challenge it, not surrender to it, and if it is really really bad, then I need to get rid of it.

Do technology and social media allow us to feel this way? Do they allow us to be able to find the I in the concept of self? Or do they merely allow us to disguise the self and in turn, kill our self, the I in us? Is this a change that I will fight and not surrender to? My answer is, "Yes, yes, yes."

It's not that technology is bad. It has become a part of our culture and social networking. It offers answers quickly that used to take forever to find, and then, once we had found it, it appeared to be outdated. These are good things, but they should not govern us and allow us to disguise who we are. We need to question the sources that we find just like we used to when we went to the library to research a question that we had. We need to question the designers of the software that we use. We need to ask ourselves, "What does it not allow me to do?"

A good example for me here is that I personally don’t like apple products because they make things so simple that it takes the creativity and challenge out of figuring something out on your own and enriching your own notion of self, and self-worth.

Oh Dear II

It looks like she could have worn this tee and blended right into the painting. While there is no question in my mind that our souls,  our lives and our individuality are a work of art – but only – and this is a BIG but only – when they are their independent, individual selves, not a copy. Oh, dear, oh, dear. Is art, and our souls really coming to that?

Damning Creativity

Featured image, Dancing With The Wind

A free artist is the one who contributes towards the idea of freedom. A free artist is an artist who is determined in becoming and finding the closest thing to freedom that they can. To contribute towards the idea of freedom means you cannot, you should not contain the idea or the mind. To contain the idea of freedom would be like damming up a flowing river or trying to capture the wind in a box, or saving the sunshine in a bottle. These things cannot be captured, only enjoyed. That is the way life should be and the creating of art should be.

 The Wind Blows

Featured image: Wind's Caresses

An artist who is free, needs to begin by building a concept, an idea. It may be inspired by history or it may be inspired by what another has said. Inspiration can come from many places. But, after the building begins, an artist who is free moves beyond any ideological system or field to find a space where it/freedom, can move like the wind.

Wind - Song by Soulstice

As the winds blows my heart knows


As the wind blows through the trees


My heart is stirring like the leaves


Even as the rain falls from the sky

Clouds fills my eyes and I wonder why


Wonder in a sense of amazement and awe
At how life begins


It never seems to never to cease

In it's educating reminding awakening us


From the things that we think that we know


As the wind blows


My heart knows

As the wind blows through the trees


My heart is stirring like the leaves


Even as fires flames burning bright


I feel my soul is my guiding light

I wonder in a sense of amusement and awe


At how life evolves
It never seems to never cease


In it's elevating redefining awakening us

From the things that we think that we know


I thought I knew I thought I knew


As the wind blows my heart knows


As the wind blows through the trees


My heart is stirring like the leaves

Songwriters: Andrew Lawrence Caldwell / Gabriel Rene / Gina Rene / Mei Lwun Yee Wind lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Pub Group

Precious Life

Featured image: Tree of Life

Belief in life and in what is precious about life, treasuring life, is what being real and authentic is all about.

 Self and the World

Featured image: Reaching for the Stars II

Reality and creativity of our self – is done through our interaction of our self with the world. Creating our self is not a random, isolated act. Creating our self is an authentic act of self exploration and discovery in relationship to others and the world. Only then when we recognize this self, and what we like about this self have we learned about our governance of self, and its loss when someone else tries to control it.