095: I am an ARTIST
1 Poem - 1 Video - 1 Comics
1.
I am an artist — a poem by Genna Ginsburg
From the Community
I AM AN ARTIST... What do you desire from me —to bare my soul eloquently? To breed to the surface, for sheer delight, all the pain, misery, and strife? To share my diary; thoughts raw as meat; packaged tightly, pretty, and neat. Shall I drudge through the haze of wasted tears, recalling fondly the glory years? The Phantoms, of which I have yet to attain, those of grandeur, fortune, and fame. Once, I embodied an ethereal frame, fully embedded in life's trifling games- Quite the dither now, I do see, which brought forth the vile in me. Desperate to conform to society's ruinous norms, obliteration through rose petaled thorns... As mirages pass me by, I shall no longer weep, I shall no longer cry for what was and could never be- The cruel winds of time, now besiege my mind and command me to create. This is indeed my fate! I will submit again and again; there is no limit, there is no end, for I am an artist. - by Genna Ginsburg
Of all places, I stumbled upon this poem on Facebook. I was sitting at a bus stop near Highbury and Islington, unable to tolerate staying present with myself amid the noise and cacophony of North London at rush hour. I was doom-scrolling... and I don't even know how or why the algorithm showed this to me since we had no connections in common.
The poem landed so softly for me... so simple, so resonant. I thought "Yes, I am an artist. And this is what it's like." Each line was so pure... ending with:
"The cruel winds of time, now besiege my mind and command me to create. This indeed is my fate!
I will submit again and again; there is no limit, there is no end, for I am an artist."
If you've been hanging around here for any length of time... you know I hold a sacred space for artists and all manner of creative work. Indeed, I go as far as to say that creativity is the ultimate spirituality - because it's what connects us to our own and each other's human being-ness.
To have this 'thing' inside you that can't be ignored, that demands of your energy and attention, that compels you to create for no 'good reason' on this plane of 'rational' existence... is to know that you're alive. But I also know its double-edged nature, and the 'cruelty' that this compulsion appears to be when you're... 'trying to be a person'. (The regular well-adjusted kind who fulfils the expectations and obligations of social citizenship.)
But I do highlight that this 'cruelty' is apparent, not necessarily the truth. It's not an 'either-or'. Perhaps it's just that creativity is valued in a different currency, and we're not so familiar with it.
Like how in reading this poem, I felt seen and 'gotten'. It was a small moment in time, and yet it was everything to me. The rest of my journey through London was much more bearable as a result.
And somehow, maybe, the Meta algorithm gods were on my side that day.
2.
Maria Lassnig: Portrait of The Artist — a short film by Hauser and Wirth Gallery
From the Internet
Maria Lassnig was one of the artists who, if I'd gone to study Art History at university, I would have written a thesis about. To me, she was someone who constantly lived in the space between the visible and the invisible, the inner world and the outer world, the bridge between spirit and matter. In other words, the space between everything that's the essence of 'human being.'
She was a recognised and influential woman, but I saw her as a feminist in neither the 'rah-rah' kind of way nor the 'woo-woo' kind of way... but the kind that I resonated with as a young woman who was trying to understand who I was in society (the outer world) and who I was as a person (the inner world). Indeed, what she called "Körperbewusstseinsmalerei" ("body-awareness") in her paintings was one of my first portals into perceiving my own body not as a 'thing to paint' (visible), but a place and a foundation to paint from (invisible).
For that, I'm grateful to her.
"I’m painting not only for myself... I’m painting for the audience. So people can learn something about reality and not only about the outside world reality but also about the reality within.’
3.
Selling Out: An Artist's Search for Money and Meaning — words and illustrations by Hallie Bateman
From the Internet
The title kind of says it all. The illustrations make a lot more sense when you read the article (👇🏽), which is very short and well worth your time.
🙃 COMING TO TERMS WITH YOUR HAPPINESS 🙃
Another little piece from Hallie Bateman that I couldn’t not include… giving you 6 easy-to-follow steps towards coming to terms with happiness, in a convenient and entertaining comic strip.
