Growth is accepting change.
I thought my love for you would never change. endless and vast like an ocean. now as I grow older and have spent so long with you, I see our connection in a different light.
it comes and goes when it pleases. when it’s here I feel weightless and float atop the waves of purpose. when you hold me, I feel safe in a sea of doubt. and yet you don’t always stay. you always have to go. to somewhere else. to someone else. it leaves me cold and confused when it slinks away out of sight. as it goes, I shiver and wonder, what went wrong and why it has to leave. again. again. and again.
our love is unpredictable yet I know, deep down, it will always come back. and when it does, I let it lift me up and embrace me in its arms like it never left. knowing it won’t be here forever, I just surf the rush of emotions.
my love for you isn’t like the ocean,
it’s like the tide.
- Valin Shinyei
Er is zoveel te ontdekken over onszelf. Mensen zijn gecompliceerd en er is niet altijd een uitleg voor hoe
we ons voelen of waarom we iets doen. Maar er is kunst.
Dansen om je eigen complicaties een uitweg te geven kan zo helend zijn.
Kunst maken om je eigen creativiteit geen enkele limiet te geven en gewoon jezelf te laten voelen!
Kunst en dans heeft mij op zoveel manieren geholpen met het verbinden tot wie ik ben en hoe mijn eigen
gecompliceerde hart werkt. Maar dit interne gesprek heeft ook oneindig veel manieren van vertaling naar
anderen, van mens tot mens.
Ik geloof oprecht dat kunst heelt, mensen samenbrengt op het diepste niveau en het allerbelangrijkste; het
is er voor iedereen.
- Annakha Flos
To speak we create. I struggle to articulate my relationship with art without it coming across hyperbolic. Truthfully, its a bond similar to the human connection, with vast room for complications & beauty. The most brilliant part of this art we make is how malleable it is to our lives. As an artist in their foundational years, the act of creating is most important. Building your palette, your lens, developing it to a point of satisfaction with room for constructive growth. Though in this phase the meaning of what you create can suffer. More recently I fell into this limbo state and simply pulled from what was real to my life. By doing so it was therapeutic but brought about a new side to my art that allowed for a sense of rejuvenation to the creative process. Truly allowing for it to be an outlet to speak my mind in a way that words can't always do justice. To put it bluntly, art is the language I best communicate in. It allows me to explore my identity, problems, & curiosity creating something that is singular. It is mine, created from my experiences, and now the art can live through other's interpretation of it. Though as I find my way as an artist, the toughest battle is creating for what feels like no one. To dedicate so much to your work, to feel there are no eyes on the art that feels like a part of you can be draining. To have an audience is an added fuel that will only enhance the art thats created & stem new conversations. We'll get there not by creating what other people want to see but by exploring this language we call art and allowing the words to be truthful to oneself. Thats what art does, gives you a canvas to evolve on. So as I live I'll be creating art and well, we'll see how it goes.
- Xander Sen
(whatthekidsareinto)
Being asked to define art or explain its meaning feels like being asked the question, “What is the meaning of life?” Such a question where I am constantly searching for answers but won’t know the true answer until it is delivered to me in a golden envelope, by a dove, on my deathbed. If I present the answer to myself with enough conviction, I believe it to be true momentarily.
Art is lived experience, reflections of thought, values, and beliefs. It is how we understand history, culture, worldviews, and our own personal experience. It provides us perspective and impacts the lens that we look through. Art is present in everyone's life to different degrees. It is present when a meal is made, in the music we listen to, the movies we watch, archival digital photos on the internet, the way we look a stranger in the eyes, children’s scribbles on a page, the way the leaves fall and organize themselves on top of a car, the organization of words in a sentence, the evolution of the human body… It is a moment in time. Nevertheless, it is everywhere and can be anything, but can also be nowhere and nothing.
I remember sitting on my couch with my two roommates, both artists like myself, about two years ago and we were debating “what is art.” Roommate A and I were discussing what we defined as art and what qualified as ‘good art’. The amount of effort, care, and thought that went into something. Something that is thought- provoking or leaves you with a feeling inside. How detailed or precise it is. Roommate B disagreed and said that art doesn’t have to be so complex. It is much more simple. If it is something that is made or exists, it can be considered art. Cooking is art, science is art, living is art. At its base level, anything can be considered art. It is when we go deeper and begin to study the discipline in question, when it becomes more specific and complex, that we begin to ask questions, address the technicalities, and differentiate good from bad. Nevertheless, it is still art.
What I love about art is the community I am creating and the presence of artists in my life. I am constantly learning and growing from the people around me. I love the detail and precision that goes into creating something as well as the merging of different mediums to create something new. I love all the moving parts to make one thing happen. My values in life and the way I experience the world have largely been informed by art. I am an artist in everything I do. Art is my family, the children I teach, the words I write, the places I travel, the new experiences I seek, my relationships, my childhood, hope, inspiration, and a reason to keep going. If I embody and show this, maybe others will too.
Art is a constant cycle of defining and redefining depending on its relevance and what has happened, what will happen, and what is happening. If the dove presents all I have written here to me in a letter, in a golden envelope, on my deathbed, I wonder if I will agree or disagree. If the dove presents all I have written here to you in a letter, in a golden envelope, on your deathbed, I wonder if you will agree or disagree. I wonder if you agree or disagree right now. Nevertheless, the decision will be a reflection of the spectator.
- Elle Derkitt
Art is the most selfless selfish act one can strive for. I know it’s an oxymoron, but I stand by that sentiment in my own pursuit of the career. All that art has done for me, has come from the journey of attempting to change something for another. But it is such a fine line to walk, as it’s often difficult to remember that art is my own life force as well, and that some efforts can be for the search to renew my own life. To break down, and find new ways to rebuild the pieces every time. One of my favourite quotes that I find myself returning to, comes from Daisaku Ikeda,
“Never for an instant forget the effort to renew your life, to build yourself anew. Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning doorway of life itself.”
As someone who is very fresh in the professional artist life, I still have so many questions about what art will do for me, but at least I know what it’s already done. I don’t think it will ever do the same thing twice, which makes it hard to write a paragraph about it. As Anne Plamondon beautifully stated, “I don’t think I’ll ever have the audacity to say that I have a voice. I started this journey for myself from the perspective of a dancer. So that I could address certain things.” Now Anne being a veteran performer, maker, and well of knowledge, it was comforting to hear that regardless of where you are in your career, you can look forward to the continued research of what you are trying to say and discover, and how others will come in and fully twist everything and help the world see your voice from all sides. Here's one more quote for good measure,
“The emotion generated by a work of art, be it poetry, painting, or music, may be that tangible, unquestionable feeling of a broadening of the self. It is a feeling of fullness, borne from a mysterious rhythm, a kind of flight toward the infinite, lived as a sharing, an exchange, whose source is our interior world. “ -Daisaku Ikeda
- Nevan Boyden
