ART AND CHANGE

One of the unforeseen outcomes of having lived through several years of uncertainty, disruption, and shifting support structures due to the global challenges we have all had to face, is the recognition that the external conditions that we had come to rely on are incredibly fragile. 

This affected artists in many different ways. While some found the changes we all experienced through 2020 and 2021 offered them space for creative projects they hadn’t otherwise been able to get to, others felt disconnected and unsure of what could replace the motivators for making their art. Exhibition opportunities dried up, open studios were no longer possible, art fairs were canceled. All of these places where artists typically were able to share and sell their work were suddenly gone. 

Many artists I worked with during that time felt challenged to continue producing work. The usual drivers that they used to motivate themselves, innovate around, and that caused them to push into new territories or even overcome resistance to making new work, were just not there. So what now? What motivates us to go to the studio if we don’t have any place to show our work? 

I think this time brought up some interesting things for us to consider around our art-practice – not only about how to negotiate the changing external circumstances, as they did in 2020, but when we’re not accepted into an exhibition or our gallery proposal is turned down.

If our art-making hinges on external validation and opportunities, what do we do when all that changes and we don’t have access to what worked for us before? We have to have something untouchable, something that anchors us – no matter what – to making our art.

The foundational ground of art-making, and for any form of creative work, is to actualize a life purpose. This gives meaning to our lives. Art-making is meaning-making. This is the untouchable, unchangeable tether we need to create for ourselves as artists. This will always be a driver that moves us to make our work – no matter what has changed for us. 

In recent months, as things have opened back up and opportunities once again arrive for us, some artists feel as if they lost ground during that time and are now struggling with how to resume a practice. They may notice that they have been changed by life, and now their work will, and should be, a reflection of that change. But how can they access that space, that inner terrain of self that has been altered in so many ways? 

This is when we most need to understand the nature of creativity and its connection to the self. We need to be willing to look inward and see what has been altered, what feels different, and what has arrived anew for us. We then have to spend some time allowing ourselves to become familiar with this altered place within us and begin to communicate it through the language of art-making. We reestablish the connection between meaning and form, meaning and colour, meaning and the relationship of the elements we use to describe our experience.

It’s important to not only give space to this time of reorientation, but also to honour it as a very necessary part of our development as an artist. Our work doesn’t have to radically change, but it does have to reflect what has changed within us to be authentic and feel accessible for us to make. If we try to start back from where we were, making the same work, but from this new place we’re occupying, it will not hold ground for us, and that energy signature will come through. 

So whether we have been altered by a global pandemic, or if we have experienced great loss and change in our personal lives, we have to recognize the significance of this and allow ourselves some time to adapt and come to know who we have become as a result.

Art is a mirror to the self…it reveals ourselves to ourselves. This is why art-making is such a transformative experience for us. What art-making requires of us is to commit to uncertainty, to remain present even in the face of our fears, discomfort, and feelings of inadequacy. We pursue a vision for our work that can never be attained, as that vision is so much bigger than ourselves and its purpose is to continually expand as we get closer to it. This expansion carries us further into our work, and commitment…as we relentlessly pursue it, knowing we’ll never get there. 

And, that is the nature of art-making…making all aspects of it meaningful for us. Art continually leads you to the betterment of yourself and your work. All we have to do is be willing to show up and nurture our mindset so that we can compassionately access what we need to clear away and offer ourselves the very best opportunity to connect with this profound meaning-making purpose.

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