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Be an artist right now Part 2

Be an artist right now Part 2

Call for the artist inside ! Remind that we all were children with artistic skills. Singing, dancing, drawing on walls, story making…

We improve our artistic creativity all during our childhood, even when we lie ! The moment kids starts to lie is the moment storytelling begins. They’re talking about things they didn’t see, it’s amazing, it’s a wonderful moment parent should celebrate and encourage ! As child, we spent time enjoying the pleasure of primitive art. Art make us happy, not work. Michel Tournier said: « Work is against human nature, the proof is that it makes us tired ». Playing doesn’t tire us, we can play all night long ! Kids do art for fun, they’re playing with art. They don’t draw to sell the work at a client or play piano to give the money to the family (normally).

Then, we grow

Unfortunately, at some point our art ends, Kids have to go to lessons, to school, do homework, and of course they take piano or ballet lessons, but they aren’t fun anymore. You’re told to do it and there’s competition. How can it be fun? If you’re in elementary school and still draw on the wall, you certainly get some trouble with your mum or teacher. Besides if you continue to act like an artist as you get older, you’ll increasingly feel pressure. People will question your actions and ask you to act properly.Unfortunately, the little artist within us are choked to death before we get to fight against the oppressors of art. They get locked in, that’s our tragedy.

We try to resurrect our Artistic desire

What happen when little artists get locked in banished or even killed ? Our artictic desire doesn’t go away. We want to express, to reveal ourselves but with the artist death, the artistic desire reveals itself in dark form. In Karaoke bars there’s always people who sing « she’s gone » or « Hotel California », miming the guitar riffs. Some people turn into Rockers like this. Or some people dance in clubs. People who would have enjoyed telling stories, end up trolling on the internet all night long. That’s how a writing talent reveals itself on the dark side. Sometimes we see dads more excited than their kids, playing with Lego™ or putting together plastic robots. They go « don’t touch it, Daddy will do ot for you ». The kid has already lost interest and is doing something else, but the dad alone builds castles. This shows the artistic impulses inside us are suppressed, not gone.

We face to our devil

They also, can often reveal themselves negatively, in the form of jealousy. Look how people would love to be on TV… Why would they love it? Tv is full of people who do what we wished to do, but never got to. They dance, they act, and the more they do, they are praised. So we start to envy them. We become dictators with a remote and start to criticize the people on TV. « He just can’t act »  » You call that singing? she can’t hit the notes ». We get jealouse not because we’re evil, but because we have little artist pent-up inside us.

What should we do then ?

Right now, we need to start our own art. Right this minute, we can turn off TV, Log off the Internet, get up and start to do something.

Kim Young-Ha [Korean author] asks his students to write a story even if they’re not major as writer. They can write what they want, he only ask them one thing:  to write like crazy, the most like crazy as they can for one or two hours. They only get to think for the first 5 minutes.
The reason he makes them write like crazy is because when you write slowly, lots of thoughts cross your mind, the artistic devil creeps in. This little voice will tell you hundreds of reasons why you can’t write: « People will laugh at you, this is not good writing, what kind of sentence is this, look at your handwriting… »
You have to run fast so the devil can’t catch up !

It’s not the hundreds of reason why one can’t be an artist, but rather, the one reason one must be that make us artist.
Why we cannot be something is not important. Most artists became artists because of the one reason.

When we put our devil in our heart to sleep and start our own art, enemies appear on the outside. Mostly, they have the face of our parents. Sometimes they look like our spouses, but they are not your parents or spouses. They are devils. They came to earth briefly transformed to stop you from being artistic, from becoming artists. and they have a magic question: « What for? ».

But art is not for anything, Art is the ultimate goal. It saves our souls and make us live happily. In some way, It helps us express ourselves and be happy without the help of alcohol or drugs. So in response to such a pragmatic question we need to be bold:
« Well, just for the fun of it. Sorry for having fun without you » is what you should say. « I’ll just go ahead and do it anyway ».

In 1990, Martha Graham, the legend of modern dance came to Korea. The great artist in her 90’s, arrived at Gimpo airport, and a reporter asked her a typical question: « What do you have to do to become a great dancer? Any advice for aspiring Korean dancers? » She answered 3 words : « Just do it! ».

So, Let’s be artists, right now. Right away, just do it !

Source: from Ted’x with Young-ha Kim, famous Korean author