The Painter: 

The painter had been asked to contribute 2 pieces of work to a gallery opening. When she delivered the works she said to the curator, “If you don’t like them let me know and I can change them for you.” He looked at her with disbelief and said, “Why do you care what I think?” “Well, it’s your gallery and your show…” she began. He cut her off, “Your art is an expression of you, that expression will not be liked by everyone who sees it. Others will totally fall in love. If you are trying to create work that everyone loves you will always fail.” She realized in that moment that art is not only the creation of it, but the experience of the witness as well and to be a true artist she had to let go of trying to control the later part of that.

The Actor:

“What did you think?” He enthusiastically asked his friends who had come to see the latest experimental theatre piece. Daniel’s goal in life was for his audience to either LOVE what was presented to them or HATE it. Filled with trepidation one of his friends said, “Well, it was interesting…” “You hated it didn’t you?” asked Daniel. “Well, I wouldn’t use…” “No, really, I want to hear it, what did you think?” “Well, yeah, I kinda hated it!” Daniel jumps into the air in celebration, “EXCELLENT!” he shouts out. He revels in the surprised face of this viewer. “You want them to love it or hate it, it’s when they don’t have anything to say about it that you should start to worry.” If the audience hates it, he has done his job just as well as if they loved it because his job as an artist and performer is to get his audience to feel.

The Teacher:

To a roomful of aspiring artists the teacher bluntly says, “Don’t you dare call yourself a writer or an artist if you aren’t willing to share your work with the world. If you can’t do that you are an amateur, a fraud and a pathetic little sissy.”

The Writer:

I have sat here for the last two months or so with an almost complete book and 30+ blogs, book waiting to be edited, blogs waiting to be posted. I have sat here in total fear of putting myself out there. My editors are kind, honest and caring and yet I haven’t been able to put the file into an email and hit send.

“What are you afraid of? Is perfecting a fear worth stopping you from expressing your art?” the painter asks me.

“How do you know you are alive?” asks the actor.

“Are you an artist?” asks the teacher. 

In answer to these three wise people:

To the Painter: “I am afraid that if I reveal my fear to you (my readers) I will isolate myself or be too vulnerable.  But, perfecting is a fear not worth stopping my expression. I have valuable things to say and although I may not be as eloquent (yet) as some, as good at spelling as others or may not be sharing original ideas or useful information to everyone, I do have something to say as an artist. And it is my job to offer that art to the world to do with it what they will.”

To the Actor: “I can feel my heart beating, I am afraid, I can feel my breath. I can feel, that’s how I know I am alive. Putting myself out there this way is going to create connection and I don’t know what might come out of that. It is scary but at the same time an exciting expression of how life works.”

To the Teacher: “YES! I am an artist! Its time I just fucking got over myself and put my art out there. It’s not up to me if you like it or not.”

There is a whole section of my book where I talk about the ability to take your fear out Tango dancing rather then letting the fear run your life. “Come on girl” I’m saying to myself as I sit here in this little magic cafe, “walk your talk, go out dancing, this is a grand new adventure and you are alive and you have something to say.”

I ran a theatre project in Colorado for years called Hitching Post Theatre, which was five plays written, directed, acted and performed in 11 and a half hours.  Our motto was, “We Make No Apologies.” Why?

Because the attraction of this format (or any forms of art for that matter) is the belief that the impossible end-of-the day deadline forces our instincts to emerge unimpaired by intellect. The fact that no one involved gets a head start builds a collective panic that grows and feeds on itself and creates a go-all-out atmosphere for the artist to RISK. It ultimately creates confidence — or so is our hope. In the frenzy of the deadline it also alters the cursed thing called “result”.

Not trusting the gray area between the process and result has led to many attempts at trying to identify the perfect process that will guarantee results.  Art lives in the gray area. Commerce does not. In trying to balance art and commerce we consistently lose our trust in what pure process can yield. Hopefully this will leave us with a greater understanding of how results are frustratingly always the consequence of trusting the unknown.

Whatever these blogs and my books may be, they are the result of an honest, sacred, heartfelt effort to honor the creative process and myself. Ain’t that cool?

Do you have an expression of artwork that you are holding back on? What is it? How would you feel about you bringing your art as I bring mine?

I have a feeling that this is the start to a beautiful friendship.