Thriving Mindfully

Tag: Art

On letting art happen

It’s common to feel from time to time that you’ve lost your creative spunk, your muse has deserted you and all you mojo has withered away.

This feeling is as common as art itself.

You would feel that there’s nothing truly artistic coming from within you.

But does art ever come from within someone?

Perhaps that’s an egocentric way of looking at the process of creation.
And once we start to identify the art we create with our ego, it is easier to succumb to pitfalls of vanity or diffidence, as far on the spectrum of confidence they might be.

There’s another way of looking at the process of creation.

Maybe the art comes through you, and not from within you.

Maybe you are not a source, but a channel.

Maybe you are just a conducting wire that completes the circuit of creation,
And the art flows as a current through you, illuminating the world each time an idea materialises.

In such a case, you are just responsible of having a clear channel, with no distortion, resistance or roadblocks.

And the art will flow through you.

And you will be able to create without attachment, emancipated from the self worth you derive from the art you create.

You’re neither the battery nor the lightbulb.
You’re just the wire that connects the two.

Once you accept the  vastness of field of creative energy, and humble yourself to be nothing but a channel for the creative spirit, art will shine through.

In the end of the day, what’s more important?

To be an artist?
Or to make art?

Let’s strive to be a good channel in the circuit of creation, beyond our ego.

For once we let the muse breathe through us,
Wouldn’t each living moment undeniably be art?

 

 

Kolam : A beautiful morning ritual

Mornings in springtime are a gift indeed. I was driving along the East Coast Road on my motorcycle in the early hours of the day. All of nature seemed so enthused about waking up to the sunrise. What a simmering symphony it was as the sun rose up by the minute. The play of sounds and lights infusing a freshness in the air, inviting all beings to express their highest creative selves.

On the way while riding through a village I found Tamil women stepping out of their houses with a little bag of rice flour. Dutifully they sat down and started making an artful pattern on the ground outside their houses. ‘Kolam’ as it is called in the state of Tamiladu, is an integral part of daily life. Symmetrical patterns are drawn on a grid of dots, welcoming good energy into the home. The rice flour used is an offering to ants and birds as well, integrating the web of life with each household.
Over the course of the day, the Kolam gets erased by the act of nature’s elements and human activity. But this transient art form finds itself again and again, every morning, resurrected lovingly by the women of the household.

What a wonderful morning ritual this is ! To draw a Kolam, to exercise one’s creative energy and discover new drawings and patterns every morning, with the pious spirit of sharing and embracing good energy! All troubles of life seemed to have stopped haunting all these women who had a soothing calm in their heart as they made the Kolam.
To express your creative energy every morning and to realise its transience, yet to choose to make the Kolam the next morning with the same enthusiasm is a great character building exercise. It must subliminally teach one that art must exist for art’s sake and one must serve as a conduit of the divine creative force every moment.
As I drive back home, I see many finished Kolam adorning the earth in front of the houses. A little girl waves to me as I pass her house.
Kolam. What a beautiful way to start a day!