Good day to you on the 5th of July. Many are bleary eyed and with a little headache from the noise of the fireworks last night. Some strong and practical parties are lean and vigorous and feeling fine because they did not drink too much wine last night, or stay up late, or sit under the booming firework barge. Well I’m guilty of the first two. I sat out on the back deck on Big Pine Key with some neighbors who brought their own libations, and we watched the fireworks across No Name Bridge at a county park. We also walked around on the deck and watched a pretty good show put on by our neighbors across the street. And so, paying for my indescretion this morning, I was late to Yoga class and could not do some stuff, and could not get my balance. I don’t know if you remember, but do you remember standing on one leg with the other leg tucked up against your knee (in a stork position?) My sister Donna was an expert at this, and I think I could do it too…. Well not this morning. And the other one that I did all the time (when I was younger) (oh how bittersweet those words are) sitting with feet brought up, bottoms of feet together, grab your toes, bend over…. yes! Get your head all the way down to your toes. Oh well…. I will be able to do this one day. Oh limberness where are you? Meanwhile I’ve copied below an article that came from my Artist’s Magazine called "Only Human". I find it extremely evocative and I hope we will all be inspired to take a pen or brush in hand and apply it to paper, wood, canvas, a wall, a dresser… creativity is in our genetic make up. We need creativity. Just do it! And like me, trying to stand on one leg or stretch into impossible positions… We will be able to do this (one day). God bless you.
Last night, as I began teaching another painting workshop, I wondered again what motivates people to put up hard earned cash and move their bodies across town (sometimes across the country) to take a painting workshop. For the most part, these are not aspiring professionals wanting to hone their skills, but folks with careers in other lines of work. I used to think that painting was just a hobby for them and a group class was a safe bet for some entertainment and relaxation. Now I’m not so sure. I have given it some thought and I believe that there is a deeper, more fundamental motivation that drives us to want to learn how to paint.
We have written before about creativity and the new scientific studies investigating the human impulse to create. It is a fascinating subject precisely because it isn’t well understood, and because in some ways artistic creativity has no practical advantage (that we can see) for our immediate survival. For instance, it takes time and resources to make an object such as an essential tool. To then devote additional time to decorate that tool instead of using it immediately for hunting or preparing food, doesn’t make much sense when food is the priority. In a tribal context, everyone must contribute to the welfare of the whole for the tribe to prosper. So why do we find elaborate and extensive cave paintings made by Neolithic hunters from 40,000 years ago? These tribes would have had to support those early artists – feed them – while they worked perhaps hundreds of hours to make these large, extensive paintings. Recently, archaeologists have found carved and decorated tools made by our primitive ancestors which are over 300,000 years old. The impulse to express something from within seems to be a very ancient need.
When I think about what motivates my students to be present, I now believe that it is related to that ancient need to create, apart from the other activities in their lives. There is something essential in the act of creation, or in simply learning to create, that answers this need. I can teach them all sorts of useful and necessary techniques which are helpful in the long run. But in the moment, which is all we really have, I try to keep in mind that if I fail to connect to the real reason they are present, then I probably have failed to connect with them at the most universal, fundamental level. It is love of creation that brings us together at these moments, and in that, we are all one big tribe.
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–John and Ann