To All Artists    

by Carol Worthey

You are giving the breath of life to what makes civilizations last longer than

their ruins. You are setting patterns, good or bad, for the future, creating new

possibilities, reinstating lost treasures, sometimes tasting immortality,

reminding us we are basically made of love. And always, whether you know

it or not, you are conquering the ravages of time, all the while expressing the

ironic beauty of the Human Condition! Please have fun doing it!

from an Article
"Intriguing Counterpoint: The Joys & Tribulations of Dual Careers in Art and Music" originally published in Journal of the IAWM (International Alliance for Women in Music) Volume 13, No. 1, 2007

 

On Being Alone...and Liking It    

by Carol Worthey

I've met people who move somewhere new about once a year and it isn't necessarily job-related — they say they get tired of where they are and have to move on. What are they trying to escape? You can never leave yourself! That's such an obvious fact but perhaps the most uncomfortable reality of all to face: No matter where you go, you're always with yourself.

Learning to recognize what makes you distinctly and uniquely you is the start of feeling at home wherever you go. You might be surprised to find you actually like yourself! Allow that feeling. Having some affection for yourself is also a good starting point for reaching out to others and making them feel they're worthwhile.

No one is perfect. The worst person you can lie to is yourself. That goes back to the fact you can never escape yourself. Perhaps the hardest thing to do is to forgive yourself (for petty foibles or for when you really could have done something differently), but it allows you to move on and to grow as a person. Stop being so hard on yourself!

Someone who is comfortable being alone all by themselves for a while, reading a book, sitting in a garden, taking a walk, listening to music, will tend to be able to make others feel like good company when they arrive.

Being alone is not the same thing as being lonely, but when the two coincide, seek safe and loving company, seek solace and find someone to whom you can really communicate. We do need others.

Cultivate what is best in you and be willing to face openly (at least within the confines of your own self-awareness) what needs improvement so that you evolve into a person you can live with and that others can live with too.

Noone is given a rigid path in life, we always have choices. Creating balance between these two aspects, cultivating what is best in you and being willing to improve, will make you feel whole — and after all, that is what "integrity" means, feeling whole, being true to yourself. If you can never escape yourself, make it a good experience!

 

Finding The Artist Within    

by Carol Worthey

I believe that everyone is intrinsically an artist, however hidden or self-denied that may be. The only difference being — are you willing to admit this to yourself? Being creative is actually in truth not as difficult as most people imagine it to be (although learning the craft of how to express it in concrete form may be a long journey). Just take a look around you and find something you've never noticed before. Now you have assumed the viewpoint of an artist — you have taken the ordinary or the neglected and cast your light upon it.

Many people tend to have very fixed ideas of what art is and who an artist must be — ideas which alienate art from everyday living. They often think of artists as eccentric or flighty, impractical and maybe even a bit weird. This idea has been popularized by... I believe... jealous people who have crushed the living daylights out of their own urge to create and so would deny this to everyone around them for fear that anyone strong enough to be creative would undo them. Unfortunately, this view of the artist as eccentric has permeated society to such an extent that many artists dramatize being different and neurotic just to be able to be seen as artists. You don't have to be nuts to be an artist! Let's get rid of that counterproductive idea right now! You can live a MUCH more rewarding and balanced and happy life by freeing up your imagination!

Do you like to set the table in a pretty way? You are an artist! Do you take pleasure in how you arrange flowers in a bowl? You are an artist! Do you savor conversations with vibrant people and recall their words later with a tingling feeling of being more alive? You — and they — have created a living, breathing moment of Art!

Art is not the fringe on the shawl of life — it is the fabric of life itself! Opportunities to see it, hear it, touch it or be touched by it are all around you. Open yourself to these and live more fully.

And remember, you don't have to be the creator of the work of art to be an Artist! Why is that? Because listening to music and looking at a painting and following a story with vivid imaginings are creative acts in and of themselves. The recipient of art becomes part of the very life of the work by bringing it to fruition within his or her own personal universe of thought and feeling.

It is not always easy to be an artist. In today's world it can feel like dancing on a highwire without a net. But the rewards are endless.

A work of art is a miracle that transforms the temporary moment into something timeless, that traces the patterns of existence in ways unvoiced until then. By expressing the uniqueness of an individual in a universal way, art transcends the barriers that separate people. If communication is the substance of life, then great art summates all of existence, converting the mundane into magic.

All in all the greatest artwork anyone can ever create is a life well-lived. Making a child smile — now there's one of the greatest artworks one can ever make! Allow yourself to indulge in the joy that creativity can bring. It is the lifebreath of what is greatest in Mankind.