Pain

As I sit down to write this week’s blog, I am struggling with what to explore.

Normally I get inspired to share a specific message, and then the process begins to flow pretty freely.

So what is so different about this week?

Why the block?

And then I realized I am actually not being stifled.

I am being detoured and led to a question that seems to keep coming up with students and private clients alike.

“Why does art hurt so much? Why does this thing that we love so much cause so much pain sometimes?”

Without fail, this question touches me in a profound way because I understand the depths in which it is coming.

It is not just a question to solve as if it were an equation.

It is one of the soul.

It is also one that does not have a finite answer as the individual path, mission, and purpose is different for each and every one of us.

But I do know this…

Art requires awareness which leads to questioning…

Which leads to truthful acknowledgment…

Which leads to a desire to grow…

Which leads to the need for action…

Which leads to growing pains…

Which leads to transformation…

Which leads to evolution…

Which inevitably leads to the hunger to create and reveal on an individual and global scale.

It goes without saying that this process is like no other.
This journey asks of the artist to look at aspects of the Self and the world in ways that one would not normally do so in everyday life.
As we begin to face deeper truths, we are presented with a choice.
Do we allow these truths and heightened experiences to stifle us into a protective falsified shell?
Or do we allow these experiences to open us and begin an expansive creative transformation.
When we choose the latter, our sensitivity to inner knowingness thus becomes much more acute and prevalent.
Our relationship with our true Self becomes more accessible and deeply visceral.
At times this could be very scary, and yes, even painful, because it begins to dismantle a structure that no longer serves.
A physical, mental, emotional, and even spiritual cleanse and recalibration begin to occur.
Inevitably, we awaken to a greater need for change.
A change that serves our best and highest purpose and mission as artists.
Yes, this revolution in our Life may at times feel like a tremendous tidal wave as it begins to break down barriers, shift relationships, and open a space within us that has always been present but not readily accessible.
We begin to thirst and hunger for the truth.
We become much more aware of the energy within and around us.
We become more conscious of how certain energies either nourish or deplete our creative field.
We begin to feel things at a deeper level.
Our lens begins to change, our listening intensifies, and that subtle voice within our heart and soul begins to speak a truth that in most cases we have ignored.
Once this magical door opens, a myriad of feelings that accompany the human condition begin to serve as an artist’s treasure chest.
An awakening of the color wheel of Life is discovered.
This is a gift and opportunity to understand, feel, and utilize the human experience.
It is a new relationship with the Self, the work, and the world.
This discovery of the human condition allows us to finally BE without limitations.
We are and always have been all things and everything if we just allow ourself to tap into our own infinity.
The pain is actually a sign of a new beginning as an artist.
It is a creative rebirth and it hurts because of all the love that is attached.

An inexplicable love for creation.

And as with any birth, the pain that accompanies is a small price to pay for the priceless miracle of any high vibrational creation which serves not only us as artists, but the good for us as a collective.

Transcript For Video:
“Why do I think art is important?

Because I think art is willing to say what nobody else is willing to say.

I think art speaks loudly in the face of doctrine to say that just because your saying ‘this is true’ does not necessarily mean it is.

I think art says ‘We are not willing to be brainwashed’.

I think art says ‘Yes, but…’

I think art challenges.

I think art progresses.

I think art looks at reality and sees when something is not working for the best and highest good for us as a human collective, it takes that reality and tries to transform it for the better.

And sometimes that means shaking things up.

I think artists are some of the bravest people we know.

I think they are warriors.

I think they are the ones that emotionally go to war for mankind.

I think they are the ones that emotionally and even spiritually allow themselves to be a vessel or conduit of change; a vessel of light for the collective.

What is the key component to all artistry?

I think compassion.

I think compassion allows us to understand the human condition in a way that does not allow us to judge it.

What is the greatest message I have for people?

I think it is to know yourSelf.

I think it is really about a discovery about learning who you are.

And really trying to take any kind of obstacles that life has given you and transform them to serve somehow.

To serve yourSelf, to better yourSelf.

To better who you are, to better your experience.

But also to help humanity as a collective.

There is so much suffering in this world.

And we get so lost in greed, competition, fame, fortune, and power.

But we forget that there is really one thing that matters.

And that is that we are all connected.

We have become so comfortable in our lovelessness that love has become an endangered species.

But I think in order to really love you have to understand its opposite sometimes.

You have to understand what love is not.

You have to understand darkness from a primal level.

Because I think only until you are able to understand its opposite can you really appreciate what love really is.

And then really pursue a mission in the name of love.

Otherwise it is all smoke and mirrors.

And I think we have plenty of that happening.”