Friday, January 4, 2013

Your Child & Your Art

 You know how people with small children just kind of disappear from your life, if you’re lucky only for a few years? Well, of course I know now why this is so. A small child (or several small children!) takes so much energy…if you have only small financial resources; no parents around to help via free & mutually beneficial babysitting; and want to do it right. Even with money and family handy, it ain’t easy.

And then, if you’re an artist of some kind, you need time & space to devote to your art: physical time & space, and mental time & space. To carve out even minute crumbs of this elusive time & space becomes a huge challenge. You sacrifice other areas of your “adult” life – maybe socializing, going out, email correspondence; maybe keeping a clean house, advancing in whatever other career you may have, or making things like scarves or cabinets. You don’t regret it, your wonderful child is worth every bit of it. And yes, your child gives you BACK a different kind of energy…warmth, love, a more relaxed attitude, feeling part of a larger cycle; the confidence that you can do ANYTHING if you really have to, for that child. Your child makes you LEARN, and there is nothing better than learning. But, in all honesty: it remains difficult, the realization that your OTHER child, Art, has had to make way for your physical child. Now, nothing is forever, and the rhythm you’re in will surely change again…hold tight to the thought.

Another challenge living with a small child poses to any artist is the repeated, constant realization that whatever that child makes – art, music, dance – is so DAMN GREAT, it is BETTER than anything you could make. Unencumbered, sure-footed, beautiful & perfect every time. The famous Picasso observations “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up” & “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child” are so very true. Hopper rubs it in my face daily. And I’m so glad he does! When I am worn out by juggling work, childcare, trying to create a better life, retaining a semblance of a social life, and trying to keep up my art & music, THAT CHILD with his magnificent freedom of expression & creation reminds me that Art never fails to add magical sparks to life. It does not matter whether that magic is put there by me, him, or entirely other people of the past, present or future: what counts is that the Magic is HERE.

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