The Zig And Zag

Featured image: Suspension Bridge

I have learned as an artist that the my journey and the journey of the progress of my work is not a straight line but a zig zaggy line filled with detours and wrong paths taken, and struggles.

I have learned as an artist that there are bridges that I will cross and learn from. I understand these bridges as historical. They allow us to travel from one year to the next, carrying the ideas and concepts from the past into the present and then into the future. Carrying the story forward is what the journey is all about.

This journey, down zig zaggy paths, and across bridges enriches my sense of life. And my sense of life should be visible in all my works more. Unfortunately, if it is not, for me that work is a failure. If the viewer cannot see my sense of life in the work then I have again failed. Generally, a viewer who becomes completely enchanted with a work has a sense of life similar to mine. If there is no sense of life in an artwork it probably is because it is simulacra. An artist's and viewer's sense of life becomes mixed with their past and is carried into the present.

A sense of life is not just within individuals, but it should also ooze from cultures and social structures. If there is no sense of life in a culture or in a social structure then that culture or that social structure like a work of art has failed. A sense of life is constantly in motion, constantly moving and always changing. Art is in constant motion, always moving, always changing. As the artist changes, and if this change causes them to loose their sense of life then it fails – same is true for culture and social structures. If as cultures and social structures travel down the zig zaggy path and across many bridges, if they loose their sense of life, then these cultures, these social structures will fail.

A sense of life should always be like the wind dancing with the tress and leaves, moving and swaying. It should be a dance of love. Art today seems to be loosing its sense of life, as are artists. I find that very sad.