A kind and concerned reader made a thoughtful comment on the post I made on Giving Up. I had wondered after I posted that message, if I should have clarified that the "overwhelming project" I was giving up was a computer database project for a client, not an art project. (Although giving up an overwhelming art project would also be OK.) Anyway, I don't associate giving up effortful living, with giving up making art. The reverse is true. Effortless art is very appealing!
Friends have often told me I seem to fear things being too easy. In that case, do they mean anything? They don't count towards earning a place in life if they're "too easy." What I'm giving up, I hope, is the effort to earn a place in life. Why not accept life as a gift?
This is not the first time I've said that I intend to accept life as a gift. I've said that, then slipped back into trying hard to earn it. So we'll see what happens here. If I find myself trying hard to accept life as a gift, that's just another way to manipulate myself.
Art that comes from effortful living, from self manipulation or an attempt to manipulate others, lacks something that I believe is essential. There's an energy, a spiritual force, that's missing. So "effortless art" can be much more meaningful - to me at least.
11:00:06 AM 
|
