1. Snow should not come before Thanksgiving.
2. Read a book before it's due at the library.
3. Catching up on writing letters feels good.
4. Don't fear the reaper.
Monday night, I went to my high school's one act play entitled, "Don't Fear the Reaper." As you might guess, it's about the Grim Reaper, who has begun to be compassionate. He gives some people the choice to pick heaven or hell, and once they do, he sends them back to earth to be able to make that choice. And because of his compassion, he is fired from his Reaping job.
I haven't had a ton of "experience" with death. I haven't been super close to anyone who has died, but I have seen quite a few people go through grief. Death and dying are a common fear. But the fear of death is not about the process, but the life not lived. When someone dies young, people say that it is tragic because they had so much ahead of them... a life not lived.
Why do we fear the life not lived? We sometimes spend so much time focusing on death and the future that we forget the present. We all know that death is inevitable, so why fret over it? We won't be forgotten; we are just a drop in the ocean, but the ripples continue on. The best thing we can do is be loving.
We can't change the past; life isn't supposed to be flawless. I believe life is perfect; what makes it that way are the flaws. If nothing terrible happened and everything went smoothly, then all we would know is the same thing, which would become very boring. Life is supposed to be lived with flaws. Think about it. When have you felt the happiest? It's often after a tough period or moment. You need to have both sides of the coin. And if you "mess up", then you found another way not to do it. You take what you've learned and keep on walking. And if you take everything in stride, then when you get to the end of your journey, you'll take that in stride too.
Don't fear death. In fact, don't worry about it at all. Live day by day, because that's all you've got.
Peace!
-Nicole
PS Megan's off for today, so that's why I'm posting on a Wednesday.
Showing posts with label Wednesday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wednesday. Show all posts
Monday, November 14, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Megan Tackles Art and Artistry
1. Don't stay up until 3:15 working on a speech.
2. Don't fall asleep reading a book, it will fall on your roommate in the middle of the night.
3. Boots = blisters.
4. It's okay to be impulsive every once in a while.
Megan here and it's Wednesday. That means you get to listen to me for a bit.
As I'm sure Nicole mentioned, we had our Symposium a few weeks ago which surrounded the topic of "The Role of the Artist in Society" A ton of great speakers came and held amazing sessions and whatnot. As it happened, Melissa forced me into a strange situation in our Psychology class the next day. She raised my hand when our Prof asked if anyone considered themselves an artist. I was uncomfortable with this for two reasons:
1. I've never gone by the descriptor "Artist." Ever.
2. I now had to talk to the class and explain how I felt about an artist's obligation to society, especially focusing on optimism.
It made me think, so here we go...
First off, yes. I do believe it is an artist's job to be optimistic, especially if they intend to reach a mass audience. That isn't to say one cannot produce dark art (I myself am guilty), however the artist must acknowledge that whatever unfortunate circumstance they've encountered is not universal and must provide a glimmer of hope for their audience. Defining art for a second as any form of self-expression, it is my belief that inherent beauty exists in every form and instance of art. Yes, I am aware that beauty exists in death and other things not seen as conducive to what we think of as being optimistic, but I also believe that the majority of art exists to highlight and express the beauty of life, in contrast to death.
To recapitulate this idea, darkness is a part of art. It is a part of human existence, and one would be ill-advised to ignore that. However, art in itself is a form of optimism in that the artist cares enough to capture its image, whether through paint, ink, graphite, dance, song, or what have you. The artist itself must acknowledge that optimism is just as viable as a viewpoint as pessimism and must present this to their audience. As a species, I believe we are generally optimistic. I mean, imagine if Oogruck the caveman thought to himself, "Well, I am entirely incapable to bringing down a mammoth tomorrow. We're all doomed." NO! Long story short, yes, being optimistic is in the job description of an artist, if ever so slightly.
Now (on a less grandiose level of thinking) I'm going to speak as someone who creates art. I caution you, Reader, in how you approach someone's art, whether that be a professional, amateur, peer, etc. Art is self-expression, and thus is created through the lens of the artist and cannot always be taken as empirical fact. Yeah an artist uses art to represent real life, but it's only a representation and well... art. People create art for art's sake, and so I advise you to not take it too literally or seriously (within reason.)
Simply put, do not pass complete judgment on an artist based solely on their art. You can view every single Frida Kahlo painting and still not know her entirely, or listen to every single Michael Jackson song and still not have a complete picture of who he was as a man. An artist will be incredibly intimate with you, but they won't tell you everything. They leave their existence for that.
To drive my point home, I leave you with something from Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty. When he was on MTV Storytellers, he alluded to the fact that fans always asked him why everything on his album was so sad all the time. He response contained something close to the following, "When I'm happy I go do happy things, I'll go hang out and just enjoy being happy. When I'm sad or something's on my mind, I'll sit and write a song about it." So yeah, I think a lot of artists are the same way. That is definitely not to say that there aren't artists out there cranking out nothing but optimism. Google Vladimir Kush, I love that guy.
Peace out, be well. Hugs.
-Megan
2. Don't fall asleep reading a book, it will fall on your roommate in the middle of the night.
3. Boots = blisters.
4. It's okay to be impulsive every once in a while.
Megan here and it's Wednesday. That means you get to listen to me for a bit.
As I'm sure Nicole mentioned, we had our Symposium a few weeks ago which surrounded the topic of "The Role of the Artist in Society" A ton of great speakers came and held amazing sessions and whatnot. As it happened, Melissa forced me into a strange situation in our Psychology class the next day. She raised my hand when our Prof asked if anyone considered themselves an artist. I was uncomfortable with this for two reasons:
1. I've never gone by the descriptor "Artist." Ever.
2. I now had to talk to the class and explain how I felt about an artist's obligation to society, especially focusing on optimism.
It made me think, so here we go...
First off, yes. I do believe it is an artist's job to be optimistic, especially if they intend to reach a mass audience. That isn't to say one cannot produce dark art (I myself am guilty), however the artist must acknowledge that whatever unfortunate circumstance they've encountered is not universal and must provide a glimmer of hope for their audience. Defining art for a second as any form of self-expression, it is my belief that inherent beauty exists in every form and instance of art. Yes, I am aware that beauty exists in death and other things not seen as conducive to what we think of as being optimistic, but I also believe that the majority of art exists to highlight and express the beauty of life, in contrast to death.
To recapitulate this idea, darkness is a part of art. It is a part of human existence, and one would be ill-advised to ignore that. However, art in itself is a form of optimism in that the artist cares enough to capture its image, whether through paint, ink, graphite, dance, song, or what have you. The artist itself must acknowledge that optimism is just as viable as a viewpoint as pessimism and must present this to their audience. As a species, I believe we are generally optimistic. I mean, imagine if Oogruck the caveman thought to himself, "Well, I am entirely incapable to bringing down a mammoth tomorrow. We're all doomed." NO! Long story short, yes, being optimistic is in the job description of an artist, if ever so slightly.
Now (on a less grandiose level of thinking) I'm going to speak as someone who creates art. I caution you, Reader, in how you approach someone's art, whether that be a professional, amateur, peer, etc. Art is self-expression, and thus is created through the lens of the artist and cannot always be taken as empirical fact. Yeah an artist uses art to represent real life, but it's only a representation and well... art. People create art for art's sake, and so I advise you to not take it too literally or seriously (within reason.)
Simply put, do not pass complete judgment on an artist based solely on their art. You can view every single Frida Kahlo painting and still not know her entirely, or listen to every single Michael Jackson song and still not have a complete picture of who he was as a man. An artist will be incredibly intimate with you, but they won't tell you everything. They leave their existence for that.
To drive my point home, I leave you with something from Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty. When he was on MTV Storytellers, he alluded to the fact that fans always asked him why everything on his album was so sad all the time. He response contained something close to the following, "When I'm happy I go do happy things, I'll go hang out and just enjoy being happy. When I'm sad or something's on my mind, I'll sit and write a song about it." So yeah, I think a lot of artists are the same way. That is definitely not to say that there aren't artists out there cranking out nothing but optimism. Google Vladimir Kush, I love that guy.
Peace out, be well. Hugs.
-Megan
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