A Life Bigger Than Your Art
This was a day at the beach, Diana+
I wish I could remember where I recently read that one must always have a life that is bigger than one's work, or one's art. The thought has been traveling with me since. My journey seems to expand in fits and bursts like this, and I've been watching it ever since the first time I wrote all the way to the fence (audio recording of that piece at the end of this post, print version available here). Every time my work expands, my life has to expand as well. I raise the stakes, deepen my awareness, place my feet even more solidly yet on Brooklyn earth. I get enlisted in Love Boot Camp. I face my shadow in all her gory and renegotiate our peace.
I can only imagine that our work would stagnate without this willingness to create to our borders, and then blow them up and explore beyond them. We become vulnerable to producing gimmicks and imitations, without new artifacts to display from our personal geography--the life and the self which are, as Julia Cameron says, the origin of our work.
I don't enjoy it, it's not like a day at the beach. I don't always like what I see, in myself or my relationships. In fact, usually I don't. But if I cease to see myself and my surroundings as honestly as I can, then my words will just posture and pose and leave a bad feeling in your eyes. If we are to make good art, if we are to be true to our work, it requires courage. Courage to let the work expand, and courage to live a life that is bigger than the work. Bigger than the art.
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. --Anais Nin
Friday, October 2, 2009 at 8:08AM | Share Article 6 Comments | Email Article Print Article | Permalink | in authenticity, creative work
Reader Comments (6)
Wow. Really powerful words that speak to me in a visceral way.
Amen to that.
Wow. Powerful and challenging. Thank you.
Mmm, love this.
This year, as I've made the leap of faith into my writing, my shadow self has been making herself very present in all her "gory" (love that!) too. My relationships, my yoga practice, my writing and my activism have all had a shake-up and no, it is not like a day at the beach. Not one bit. But I know that it is only because I'm willing to keep staying with it, staying with the truth as it reveals itself, that I am finding my voice in my writing. Thank you for confirming what I was already walking through, and letting me know that I'm not alone.
You make me want to get busy blowing things up.