Chirping About the Arts
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I got to meet Ozgur at Valley-Con in October because we were table neighbors, and because I need to talk to feel comfortable an inevitable conversation started; it was one of the best parts of the con. I will remark that Ozgur’s advice and assistance was core to helping me to have a good first time experience and I am eternally grateful for this. But getting asked to appear on a podcast with him and some of his fellow writers was an absolute treat and I cannot thank them enough for this. This is my meditation.
We are birds here because if felt like doing collage, and be were singing that day.
The lasting memory of this was getting to be in a space focused on one thing, the joy of art and creativity. Yes what we were talking about is narrative and artistic principles but to espouse and converse what joy! I believe the yearning for such things is the most lasting sense of nostalgia I have from art school and it is this that makes me believe it is worth it; but I like to talk as stated. But this is why I spent so much time speaking about my students and their successes, because art is ultimately about the discovery of self. Seeing young artists, or any child for that matter, succeed in something that can bring prosperity is the spark of a better tomorrow. Expression is not just an act it is a source of healing, a cry against the peril, a call to empathy in the face of the hard cold presence of the common era.
All the art I talked about in the episode.
Not everyone is an artist, same as not everyone is an engineer, because not everyone has the same set of skills. But engagement with creation is a human need, problem solving is in our blood, as we would not be here without it and to connect with our ancient gift centers us to the joy of our our existence. Creativity does not exist solely to be useful, although it is very helpful, it is there to give one a sense of value and meaning. This is a solution to one of the greatest questions in Existentialism - the purpose of all things. Purpose is not given like a gift from the sky on high but a conscious act of agency, to do something that is important to you or maybe to more is the reason. To strive for something, to move forward, to fill the worn banner’s flight as the resplendent inspiration that guides in moments of peril. This is why finding ones outlet is a triumphant task, the days may be horrid, the mind may be arrantly chaotic and filled with anxiety, but to have something that brings some cathartic end through the efforts of ones own labor is a manifestation of joy, or at least be the spit on the face of adversity.
Anyone has the ability to do this, all they have to do is pick up the tools to make it happen. Be it through education, inspiration, or determination we all can be the creative beings we envision. We identify so deeply with the heroic journey because of this and is why it was an absolute pleasure to explore the craft and its glories with everyone at Bards and Balledeers.
I hope to return in the future.
