How to live like an artist
Gorleston yacht pond with frozen puddle
“Living life as an artist is a practice.
You are either engaging in the practice
or you’re not.
It makes no sense to say you’re not good at it.
It’s like saying, “I’m not good at being a monk”.
You are either living as a monk or you’re not.
We tend to think of the artist’s work as the
output.
The real work of the artist
is a way of being in the world.”
I’ve just come to the end of an online course called, ‘Everyone is an Artist’. The original title had been ‘Meditation for Artists’ until I realised that only the most confident of artists will label themselves that way. The title ‘Everyone is an Artist’ turned out to be less intimidating, plus I discovered it’s true.
I’d wanted to explore ‘Dharma Art’, a term coined by Chogyam Trungpa. Dharma Art does not simply mean explicitly Buddhist art, such as images of Buddhas or ‘The Wheel of Life’. It includes any art that points to the same thing the dharma is pointing to; truth and freedom.
As the month went on, another theme emerged. What did it really mean to be an artist?
Memories of a postcard I’d once owned surfaced towards the end of the course. It was a small wooden sculpture depicting a Buddhist nun in meditation. I’d had it by my bed for most of my twenties; it was an image of how I wanted to live. Yet there was no way I wanted to be a nun. No, I wanted to be the essence of a nun in the midst of worldly life.
Now, above my desk are pictures of my ‘middle-aged women artist’s refuge tree’, Laurie Anderson, Margaret Atwood, Tracey Emin and Cornelia Parker. I look up to them for inspiration and encouragement.
There they are helping me, not to become an artist but to become the essence of an artist, to live like an artist, and to see the world as an artist does.
Laurie Anderson, Margaret Atwood, Cornelia Parker and Tracey Emin
One of my Buddhist teachers Sangharakshita, has an aphorism, ‘commitment first, lifestyle second’. Being a Buddhist is about what is in your heart. You don’t have to adopt a certain lifestyle. It’s a way of being in the world.
So being an artist, to me, isn’t so much about a certain output, about learning to paint or to write. It’s about simply engaging with the world as an artist would.
How can I live like an artist? Below is my response to that question. You will have your own:
Be curious. Pay attention. Notice what you notice. Ask questions. Take notes. Be open to finding anything and anyone interesting. Have no agenda.
Open yourself to magic. Trust your intuition, act on it. Look for signs. Let yourself be guided by something other than your rational mind. Say yes. Enter into a conversation with the world.
Fail and make mistakes. Be vulnerable. Recognise fear as the biggest barrier. Be uncool. Welcome each failure as an opportunity to toughen up. Don’t strive for perfection but for something alive and real and human.
Are you an artist, explicitly or implicitly? If so, what does it mean to you to live like an artist? You can let me know in the comments below.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being - by Rick Ruben
