Why I am not an Artist.
Creative Arts ; are they important?
My main role here in Proyecto Horizonte has
been working with the youth and engaging with the activities they have been
doing be that dance, theatre, music or visual arts. To most people the arts are
a hobby, a recreational activity and creative enjoyment which has its merit in
its belief. The question that remains is
could it be more than simply this?
As someone who has ventured out into being a
creative partner that works in communities I have had the chance to engage many
different demographics in society with the arts. The honest question that I
find myself asking is whether the work we do in the arts is beyond skin deep?
Whether the pieces that are created, be they performance or visual, have more
impact than simply having something to entertain or muse at and be
aesthetically pleasing. After all art is
somewhat introspective and subjective surely?
To some people the idea that I have been here
doing art may seem at bit of an easy ride where others may be doing more
‘worthwhile’ things such as running campaigns and raising awareness for key
issues or helping vast groups of people with their development or even working
in an orphanage and showing love to the most vulnerable in society. In reality,
my own conscience wrestles with that very issue of whether the creative things
I get to do on a regular basis is more for my benefit and experience than for
those whom I am meant to be serving. Who really gets the most out of the work
that I am doing? I get to come home with paint on my hands as a sign of a day
spent in creativity while others have the stains of children’s tears or the ink
of printer from the policies and strategies that they are trying to implement.
The question of the relevance of the work I do
and the importance of it only resolves itself when I step back from staring so
closely at every woven strand of the detail and look at the bigger picture. I
guess measure for measure, will art change the world compared to implementing a
new social policy or environmental strategy? In reality, no. However, creative arts can impact the heart
and soul and this for me is my domain. On the surface it seems I spend my time
messing around, being creative and hanging out with the local people doing
‘stuff’ with them. Take the chance to
scratch pass this surface and other layers that lay unseen become apparent. I
build relationships with these local people, especially youth, some which last
for the life of the project, others for the life of the time spent with the
people themselves and some that actually
continue for life. The time spent with
them is a chance to get to know each one as an individual, as a person and hear
their thoughts and views on life and who they want to be and how they want to
live, what their hopes and dreams are. I guess most of the deep things come out
the longer I spend time and build relations with them because they first have
to trust. The Arts are the tool used to get there. But the Arts are more than
simply the tool to initiate connection.
The Arts
have always had a wider remit of impact beyond the people that create it. Just like the old saying it’s a blessing both
to give and to receive, I suppose the Arts
embody this for both the one who creates as the giver of expression and to the
one who sees and experiences it as the receiver. Art influences culture and culture
shapes society. We can all think of famous art pieces that were revolutionary
at their time or music that defined an era and opened the way for change to
arise or the theatre piece or film that tackled a political tension or
highlights the blindness that lies within our paradigm of society. Yet it is gentle enough to stop a person in
‘’that moment’’ and cause them to ponder and re-evaluate what they think. It
has the ability to allow a door to open that may have been closed before, or
touch an emotion that had been buried below layers of hurt.
Now take this gentle strand and set it in a
community where there are voices that have been silenced or unheard for many
years and decades even, sit down with an individual who has a story to tell
that only tells itself through drawings on page or lyrics of a song and then
maybe you see the glimpse of where they reality of my work would begin to
exist. Art no longer is a mere tool but part of the person, part of their
expression and journey, something which they feel they have given life to and
have a sense of achievement and pride in. Not all art has to be a deeply
penetrating exercise. Sometimes it’s enough to simply give the opportunity for
a father to stop from the rush of the nine to five day and spend the time making
spaceships out of toilet roll and colour paper and felt tip pens with his three
year old. All of it is building community, and this is why I love what I do.
There is room for both the wide reaching
influence of art that shapes a society and for the art that on the individual
level allows expression and builds the bond between family members, friend to
friend, young people to their community leaders. The value of the work that I do doesn’t have
a measuring stick or target levels that could be put in a manifesto of a
government or be a statistic in someone’s report. The real measure is when you see the faces of
those who you work with change from being filled with hopelessness to having
courage to try again or seeing the lives of those involved with your project be
uplifted and revitalized, the young people that have a sense of pride in their
graffiti wall they sprayed that they still boast of it to their friends months
later and the ones who step forward and come to you with their ideas wanting to
start their own projects.
However, the reality is that some of these
fruits of our labour ends up manifesting themselves many months and even years
down the line. Sometimes I may never see
the outcome of impact in the lives I have encountered over the years as I move
from one place to another, which is why stepping away from the immediate detail
and taking in the big picture in is essential. If I didn’t choose to keep
seeing above the immediate I would not pick up another paintbrush or choose to write
another song again. Change and impact takes time to form its roots before it
bears its fruit in the lives and community it has settled in. I and others like
me are in it for the long haul and the future change, not for the quick instant
fix, which is why from the outside it can seem that what we do may be very
simple, uneffective and hedonistic.
My work thrives on the micro and most likely is
only seen by me and those directly involved with the art projects I do - but
what gets left behind after the project ceases and I no longer see their faces?
Legacy. The journey that was shared between all of us, the challenges they had
to overcome, the comfort zone they had to step out of, the new relationships
they have made, the fear they had to face, the silence they broke, the hope
they now have, the smiles that stay on their faces. Community. At times it does feel like a drop in the ocean
on the grand world scale but for each individual that mere drop has ripple
effects in their world. And as friend once told me though it may only be a
drop, it is a drop and it still
counts - for it is better than no drop at all.
There will always be a joy for art in its
multi-faceted form to be for sheer entertainment or for art’s sake, to be a
created piece to be evaluated and admired or criticized. A piece created for pleasure simply to bring
pleasure. There will always be artists
whose sole course is to create and bring expression to what is internally
dwelling inside them for the world to see. A world without such Arts would become dull
and grey and all art has its value.
So when many people ask me what I am doing here
in Bolivia and indeed with my life and work I cannot truly claim to lead so
glamourous a lifestyle of endless creative endeavour as a true artist. I am too concerned with filling the ocean with one
drop at a time, and it may not change society or revolutionize the world but if
has brought change which leads to transformation in the world of One then have
I not conquered the greatest mountain of them all? And each drop that I have seen fall in to a
body of water greater than itself always creates a ripple effect. Community.
And this
is why I am not an Artist.
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