The Artist : Allegory for a human condition

The Interviewer: There is a class they call Art Class, right?

The Artist: Wait...who is they?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

They are...ahh...very good question. They are everyone, all the people...in...the world...the civilized countries...just the people near me...I mean, everyone I talk to.

Oh ok. You mean "They" are mother-culture.

Yes, yes exactly.

Mhm.

Ok so there is a class they call Art Class. In this class, they inform students using an Art Guide.

Wait what is this Art Guide? How do you use it?

No you don't use it really. Not like a tool that teaches your class, but more like a written version of the class. So if the teacher doesn't remember who first used a paintbrush they can refer to the book so that they then can inform the students on that person. Make sense?

So the book is about the history of the people who make paintings?

No no. Not just paintings all kind of art.

Ohhhh. Thats got to be a very big book.

Well, its no longer really a book its now digital so it can be on a computer or Ipad, or Iphone, or any other digital device.

Hm.

The teacher of the class uses the Art Guide to inform the students on the Definition of Art, the History of Art, and all the different types of Art. Then the class starts moving on to more hands-on learning where they get to practice those different types of Art.

What are the types of Art?

Haha...well I don't know...you're the Artist shouldn't you know the types of Art, ha ha.

I didn't know there could be types of Art. Someone told me once "the Artist was blessed with the gift of another pair of eyes. But cursed with the inner need to share what they saw."

Wow. Thats beautiful. Who told you that?

No one, I had written that once in an old meditation book of mine but I don't feel like it came from me, I feel like it came from the Universe. Just flowed into my head and into my hand and onto the page.
It took me a while to really appreciate it but now I think I understand. When I first read it I thought it was sort of poetic...but then I later came to realize its a curse given to us by our creator, repeatedly whispered in our minds...you can hear it too if you just listen.

You seem to see the Artist with a sense of pity, as if you really believe this gift you have is a curse.

I am sorry if I made it seem that I am unhappy being an Artist. Because I was born an artist. I am happy being an artist, but it is definitely a curse.

What an amazing curse it is you do have. Would you mind talking about your curse? What is it that you do as an artist?

My curse. Ha ha. My art is creation. I use my mind to create thoughts, and then use my hands to create those thoughts, I call "stuff". Creating something from nothing, one thing from another, or trying to give physical form to what I see in my mind's eyes.

At dinner parties I try to perform my art with words, but words don't work so well. I find our eyes to be windows into the soul. When you see something you can believe it, when...

What do you mean" don't work so well?" Words don't do the art justice.

No. Hm, I guess you could say that. I mean that words are too far behind the mind. If my mind figures something out and then decides to tell my mouth to speak it, by the time I have spoken the first sentence my mind has already moved decades into the future asking other people the same question.

Plus, the people at dinner parties don't really want to talk about my art, they get more excited when they talk about other people's art.

Other people?

Yes anyone who has made Art that is similar to my art, but is created by someone else other than me.

That's why I'm here though, to talk about your art. Not their's.

Yes I know. I started to think I was ahead of my time. Because these people they did not understand, they heard the words I was speaking, but they could not see it with their mind's eye. But I later learned that as an artist, thats the way you know who you are. Because you know you're different. You know you see the world through different eyes, with different glasses, and then you want to show other people what it is you see. But you can't give them your eyes. You can't spontaneously share your thoughts. You must then figure out how to help someone else understand what it is you understand...not what you see. Then build it, paint it, sculpt it, write it, film it, and finally share it.

So you're saying being an artist is basically creating something and then sharing it.

Yes but there is one important part your missing. Knowing. You must first find out what it is you understand about the world, what do you see when you look up...what is your role?

Yes. How do I "know" where do I look to find out what it is I understand in the world.

Oh but this is easy. Ask yourself a question.

Any question?

The only question: What do you love most about life?



What is Creativity?



I found this on wikipedia:

Creativity is the ability to generate innovative ideas and manifest them from thought into reality. The process involves original thinking and then producing.

I love this and I also love wikipedia.

Whoever wrote that is very good. Not only is creativity the ability to generate the idea, but the ability to manifest it into reality.

Creativity comes from the Latin term creō "to create, make". The ways in which societies have perceived the concept of creativity have changed throughout history, as has the term itself.

The ancient Greek concept of art with the exception of poetry, involved not freedom of action but subjection to rules.

I feel truly inside of me when given a task, part of completion is not only succeeded but the creativity involved in how to succeed. I am not satisfied beating the game with a cheat code. Yes, I made it to the end, but I bypassed the challenge, I pillaged someone else's creative achievement. "But Derek, beating a video game isn't really creative...being creative is like painting a painting or drawing a picture, or sculpting a bust."

In the West, by the 19th century, not only had art come to be regarded as creativity, but it alone was so regarded. When later, at the turn of the 20th century, there began to be discussion of creativity in the sciences

I remember walking out of my college counselor's office, where he helps me decide and map out what classes would be best for me to take in order to get my piece of paper, I mean degree. This day I spoke with him about changing my major...currently I was getting a Bachelor of Arts and I had taken a bunch of science classes...computer programming, economics...but if I wanted to keep taking psychology I could remain a Bachelor of Arts....

I was a little confused.

So psychology was considered an art, and computer programming was considered a science. Whats the difference? A professional psychologist is considered a doctor right?

I laughed. I wasn't confused, everyone else must be confused. There isn't a difference between art and science. Just words with different letters. In the end I switched to a Liberal Arts degree...lets me take the classes of the subjects I want to learn and not have to decide whether or not they are an art or a science.

I will continue this post later...

A life of connections is a life of opportunity

Around a month ago, 3 of us embarked on what I thought was a trip from Florida to Missouri...where initially the purpose was to meet up with Ryan and Mandy, two bike-packers set on sustainable community, where we were going to help finish production on their/our documentary called Within Reach.

This film is a spiritual/emotional/bike-packing journey from California around the USA and finishing with their move into a sustainable community called Hummingbird Ranch.

What I did not know is that I would experience a serious life-purpose evaluation and realize the endless opportunities for sustainable happiness!

Here are inspired words from an excited mind that I wrote a few nights ago:

On this trip, I have been truly re-awakened to the possibilities of life. The different amazing people we have met, the truly inspiring moments we have witnessed are indescribable.

It has opened my eyes to new directions, new motivations, and new visions.

I see a creative community. creative in how they live and creative in how they eat.

a place where people longing for creative outlets, starving for true creative satisfaction can gather, where they can learn, create and share together...

The secret to all of humanities problems seems to come through community. The kind of community that can be described by two true souls connecting and offering something to each other. A hug, a laugh, a hand shake, a discussion, a dance, a barter, a song, a talk, a fight. None of these things requires something to be taken or given, it is a mere result of community; not an exchange, but a conscious action with a positive mutually beneficial reaction.

I have been blessed with a true soul and a longing for other true souls. Which means I need to seek out these people. Why? Because I can see now that: disconnected we are inevitably dying, but connected we are forever evolving.

This new mindset has effectively turned problems into challenges, and failures into a sort of open-source education.

I have been swayed to see not how I can create a house with what I have been given, but how to create a world with what I have not yet received.

I am grateful to everyone and everything in my life that has led me to where I am and allowed me the freedom to forever strive towards a more joyous and fulfilling life.

I will never forget this trip. And I hope that it will continue to inspire me to constantly, like the founders of this initially freedom-seeking country so eloquently expressed, live my life in a "pursuit of happiness."

Forget money, forget fame, forget power. Love creates laughter, Love creates compassion, Love creates community.

And community will help us survive any transition.

Dedicated to the Creative Conscious



There is a creative revolution going on...

when it started, I don't know. who started it, I also don't know.

But I know its real and I'm part of it.

Real Life vs Reality

I think there is a definite divide between what people call "real life" and the reality of life.

Ever since you are young you are pushed towards invisible goals. Invisible like not visible. As in the statue of liberty is indivisible...the sky is visible...but the air I breath is invisible.

These goals are always made to seem as if nothing else matters.

In life...GOD is all that matters.

In "real life"...money is all that matters.

However in reality, everything matters:

The people that love you matter.

The air you breath matters.

The temperature matters.

The sunlight matters.

The waste we produce matters.

The birds matter.

The rabbits matter.

The worms matter.

Once someone has been awakened to the reality of life...

"real life" just seems kind of a waste of time.
I never knew being a pedestrian was so much fun.

Our car was in the shop. The shop is about 30 miles from our house.

We have no bus stop anywhere near our house. So everyday is an adventure.
The process of researching something is really personally satisfying. I always find myself on the internet researching something, some topic, some clarification. I also feel like everyone also does it in their own way. But I think I do feel a little disconnected from the print world. I can notice a gap between the research done on the internet and the research done in a library. Now, I have noticed a continual growth in the amount of legitimate information that you can find on the web nowadays...but I can still feel there is a gap.

I feel like I have the continual interest to get to the bottom of things and I would like to compile a source of places on the internet to do good, legitimate research.

Disciplinary Blogging



I am thereby sentencing myself one blog on a daily basis for the next 30 days. If I can't pull that off than I will be very disappointed in myself.*

*This comes from a very specific problem I have with discipline. I seem to have a problem with personal discipline...especially when it comes to repetitive tasks. Not only do I sigh sometimes when I need to take a shower or clean the dishes. But I really don't like finding food to eat anymore, like just the task of having to go buy food or make food is just such an annoying task.

So I've come to the conclusion I need some discipline practice.

The other day I watched a documentary one of my friend's created at his time at The Citadel. A military-esque school with a bizarrely strict drill team. They were drilled on a daily basis; uncomfortable and most of the time physically painful tasks were performed in unison, while their superior officers degrade them by yelling at them and drawing embarrassing images in permanent marker on their arms and faces.

The only thing I can think this trains you for is a socially-unsupported world where you are forced to do uncomfortable and possibly painful repetitive tasks on a daily basis.**

**I don't know but reading through that seems like the boiler-plate description of what it would be like if you went to hell.

But either way I think if you can survive hell you can survive anything.

Why am I doing this you ask? Well I feel like I either always forget to write or I put it off because I have better things to do. While both of those things are normal excuses...they are bullshit automatic responses that some robot inside me tells myself.

So for 30 days I want to prove I can beat the robot.
30 days ago today I was pulled over 2 times in the same night for a broken tail light. The second time I was pulled over the officer gave me what he called a "warning" ticket, then he said "just prove that you fixed the light and you won't have to pay this." The ticket was for $80.50.

It is now the 30th day and I have to pay up.

- - -

I've been very busy but last week I took my car to Pep Boys since they worked on my car a few weeks ago and put a dye in my oil so they could help me a find an oil leak. I brought the car in told them 1.) I was following up on the oil leak and 2.) I had a tail light that was out. I then explained I checked the bulb and the fuse and thats not the problem. They said "Sound good. We'll take a look. Would like to take advantage of our -Buy 3 tires get 1 free deal-"...

I thought: Actually my tires need to be changed, i'm starting to see some tread on the front 2 tires, if I get the 4th one free I really am only paying for 1 more tire. "Why not, sounds good."

This was at 10:00 AM.

Around 9:00 PM I call them asking them "Where the hell is my car?" They told me that I need to take the car to a certified diesel mechanic to fix the oil leak, and the tail light doesn't look like its the bulb or the fuse so I'll have to take it to a certified electrical service mechanic...BUT We put all 4 new tires on. YIPPEE!!

So I took the car home and parked it. The next day I took the day off to find out for myself why the light wasn't working. I mean how hard could it be.

Wow. Pretty insanely difficult.

I followed the cable from the trunk to the backseat to the front seat up through the dash then under the hood...ripping the car apart in the process. After 2-3 hours I gave up on finding a problem with the cable and decided, well if my left tail light works, then I could probably just run a wire from that light to the other one and it should work. Well it was time for me to head out and I knew it would take me at least another hour to accomplish so it went on the list with the wind shield wipes I removed and have yet to put back in in over 3 months.

- - -

So now on the 30th day I drove from shop to shop explaining my problem until finally I found a Mobile Service Center who said they would fix it. Yes. I felt accomplished, whatever it costs its probably cheaper than the $80 ticket.

They look at it. Ask me lots of questions about how the veggie cars work and how much I pay for the oil and yadda yadda. Then I hear one of them say it could probably take all day to find a wiring diagram for a 1982 Benz and who knows where the wiring issue is. I walk to the back of my car and I realize one of them has grabbed some of the wire I had ready to link the lights together and is hiding it along the back of the trunk to the other light. ARGH. Well he ended up doing what I would have done anyways, but didn't charge me.

Thats what I'm talking about. Thats the world I want to live in.

So immediately I call the court house to find out where I have to go in order to prove I fixed the light so I don't have to pay.

Operator: "If you fixed the light, you'll still have to pay."

Confused Derek: "Well the officer said that if I fix it, this is just a warning ticket and I won't have to pay if I have someone look at it."

Operator: "Well he's wrong"

More Confused Derek: "He's wrong?"

Operator: "It'll be $96.50."

Confident Derek: "Actually the ticket says $80.50"

Operator: "Well its wrong"

Jaded Amused Derek: "Haha. Riiiiight. So the economy has everyone in a bind."

Operator: "Excuse me sir?"

Retarded Robot Derek: "So what happens if I prove I fixed it?"

Operator: "If you bring it to a police department, if they have time they will sign off on the ticket that you have replaced the light, if you did replace the light and you will receive a discount...the ticket will be $76."

Certain Derek: "So I get a $4 price break."

Bitch Operator: "No. $20 break actually, from $96 to $76."

Derek: "Oh Riiiight."

Operator: "But the police department might charge you a fee for signing off on the ticket, so you might not be saving much."

Derek: "Haha. You got me. Yeah. Allright Byyyyeeeeeeeee."

- - -

Now I'm sitting here contemplating whether to even bother going to the police department and just paying the god damn thing online, since thats what they want me to do any fucking way. LAWDEE FUCKING DAW!
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