And creativity is more important now than ever before.
We are living in unprecedented times when personal freedoms are being stripped away, freedom of speech, freedom to transact, freedom to travel and the concept of democracy are all fast becoming illusory while technology is being used to control, manipulate and effectively imprison entire societies.
The drive for compliance and convenience, driven by such things as AI, suppresses our natural creativity and our willingness to grapple with the unknown.
But we are better than all of that. We are more creative and resilient than we give ourselves credit for.
And we have art.
We can build our own freedom.
Art is our connection to our subconscious. It’s the mirror through which we see ourselves and how we are conditioned—and can, if we choose, learn to see things afresh. It is a powerful agent of social change.
Art helps us realize that things are not necessarily the way we think they are. It is there to challenge us in some way, to inspire, to make us curious to discover something about ourselves or our world that we may not know, to enhance or refresh our environment, to convey a message, to excite us, or bring us peace.
If it blends into the background and does none of these things, if it does not disturb us in some way, then it makes no contribution to our life.
Our journey in life is precious. We can use it in many ways. We can simply look for comfort and entertainment or we can use it as a fantastic adventure where we break through our limitations and realize our own unique magnificence.
And we can!
We each need to unlearn, learn to see and make meaningful connections.
We live in the overwhelm of fleeting images and huge volumes of information that we were never designed to assimilate and that we can trust less and less. We live in an environment that is being poisoned by chemicals, pharmaceuticals and manmade electromagnetic radiation, all of which are having increasingly damaging effects on our minds and bodies. We scroll through life, searching aimlessly for the next momentary high.
Why do we so willingly surrender our rich creativity and humanity to technology and a few powerful special interests? What is the purpose and the end game for us all?
Stupidity is sometimes defined as doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result. To get a different result, we actually need to look beyond what we believe we know and get creative.
In life, we either consume or we create. That’s our choice, in every new moment.
When we consume, we are giving our life, our time and our energy to whatever it is we consume and therefore to the providers of that consumption.
When we create, we are building a better self, a unique life and a more powerful, satisfied whole that is in integrity with who we truly are. Yes, creativity can be uncertain, messy, chaotic even. But it is always worth it, because we cannot be anything other than ourselves – so we might as well make the best of who we are, and find our own unique purpose and fulfillment!
Creativity has its home in our subconscious – beyond rational thought. In my art and my writing, I therefore strive to detach from my rational mind and intellect to find deeper wisdom, imagery and ideas that transcend beyond the conscious.
That is why my work is so varied and doesn’t follow a learned technique. I try to stay in the moment, in my feelings—and I hope, with each new piece of work, to tap into the intuitive flow that connects with something inside me and inside each viewer. I invite you to observe, with an open heart and mind, and see where the art takes you.