"Anxious Hope"

22x30 Watercolor

The Destructive Self

We have all been designed to create in this life.  To fashion ideas into realities, to explore new thoughts, and to live lives that outwardly express the true inner self.

We marvel at those who who bring their art to life.  Musicians, Painters, and Poets.  We long to express ourselves in such a beautiful and constructive manner.

Because we don't know how to express ourselves (perhaps we really do know how, but choose not to for fear of what it will cost us) we live inwardly conflicted lives.  We secretly wrestle, quietly scream, and inwardly go to war.  We can't make sense of the tension and cannot express ourselves in the manner of the true Artist and so what comes from our hands is nothing short of destruction.

It may come through throwing the tools when you can't get the swing-set constructed just right or the tearing up of the canvas when the picture wasn't getting flushed out the way you envisioned.  It may come through hateful words when you and another fail to see each other fully, or worse, it may come into being when you strike another because they have unknowingly reflected to much of your worse self.

We destroy when the frustration of "what we wish to be is not what is" breaks past our capacity to hold it safely.

We destroy because the old container clearly does not work anymore and birthing the new is too labor-some.

These expressed fits of aggravation reveal something to us:

Our petulance for destruction is bound in our longing to create.

Please do not be startled anymore by the self that wants to scream, throw, and smash (do not bury it away, pretending that only the pietist within you exists).  Yet do not indulge it because of its ease; the unleashed destruction will only become amplified.  Instead, listen to it.  Invite it to sit and be still.  Let it, without fear, become a teacher for you; usher it to the light.

For it is an indicator that there is creative work yet to be done.

Wild & Chaotic Creativity

"Tohu va Vohu" - wild and chaotic - is how the Hebrew Bible describes the world in the first moments of creation (Genesis 1:2).  Unlike other creation myths where chaos dies and order triumphs, Genesis leaves chaos intact.  This is the source of both suffering and creativity.  A completely ordered world would be like a paint-by-number landscape: everything is scripted and nothing new can happen.  Actual creation is like a Jackson Pollock painting where chance and chaos are part of the creative process.  Only in a world of "tohu va vohu" is there the possibility for new life, great art, innovative science, and ever-expanding wisdom.  If God is an artist, God is closer to Jackson Pollock than paint-by-number.

                                                - Rabbi Rami

In The Future...

Post-it Note Doodle of what awaits us in the future.  How awesome will it be to have ion-beam shooting robots?  (Unless they are evil ion-beam shooting robots; then that wouldn't be so good).

What is your future doodle?

Doodle Bomb

Nagel texted me this doodle.  I'm not sure what this bomb has in mind but his intentions don't seem virtuous (little does Mr. Doodle Bomb know, his fuse won't last the walk to my house)..

What doodle will you send a friend today?

Co-Creating Melodies

The story is told of a concert pianist who was on the point of beginning a performance when there was a scream from the audience.  A child had left her seat beside her parent and was running around the auditorium.  the concert pianist stepped away from this instrument in order to maintain concentration.  The child ran up the steps onto the stage, sat herself down on the stool, and began to play discordant notes at random as she pleased.  The hushed audience gasped in horror and embarrassment.  The pianist walked toward the child and stood behind her as she played.  The pianist leaned over her hand, and without disturbing her, placed right and left hands outside her two small hands on the keyboard.  The pianist then began to play in response to her notes, weaving their discordant sounds into an improvised melody.  To have thrown the child out would have been to block; to have let her play on would have been to accept; to weave a wonderful melody around her was to receive her as a gift, to over-accept.
                                                                                               - Samuel Wells

You are never and inturruption to Divine Pianist.  Your off notes and broken rhythms are never outside the steady movements of God.  You are, after all, a gift and welcomed to play at the seat of the Great Musician.  So, do not be over-concered with the glares of others or over-whelmed that your timing and technique are fragmented. 

This is what it means to be a child.

It is not yours to orchestrate each stanza and perfect each measure.  This is the work of the Conductor, who, as you get lost in the delight of play, hems you into a bigger song.

Kessel Run In Less Than 12 Parsecs

I started doodling a TV and the first thing that came to mind (when wondering what should be "on TV") was the Millenium Falcon.

Probably because it is one bad-ass ship.

What would you doodle on your TV?

Creative Incarceration

I hope you’re not waiting for permission or approval for your creative expression.  If so, pull up a chair and get comfortable.  If the artist within you is waiting for someone else to let them out then the only thing you can count on is a life-sentence of creative incarceration.

You can blame the creative hold-up on other people’s bureaucracy and “lack of vision”, but really, it’s just your fear that’s keeping you back.

...With A Dragon On Top

2 Scoops Of Mint Chocolate Chip With A Dragon On Top

This was my doodle of the day...what is yours?

If you haven't doodled yet...what's keeping you?

Living Icons

“We seldom celebrate enough the fact that healingness and newness are inborn in the human person, and we can release them into the world in creative and redemptive ways.  We are perhaps too frozen in the notion that we are faithful if we are obedient.  We are moral if we play it safe.  We are virtuous if we ask God to do stuff for us.  Slowly and not often enough do we learn that God is not one who bails us out, or one who nags and supervises what is entrusted to us.  The good news is a glorious but demanding affirmation that we are trusted by God to live a new kind of life.”      - Walter Brueggemann

You are one of God’s icons; designed to reflect his very nature.

Goodness.

Mercy.

Justice.

Love.    

Do not wait for God…he is waiting for you.  You have been trusted to act, to move in ways that promote wholeness, restoration and peace.

Today, and each moment within its confines, you have opportunity to live out what has been hard wired into you.  Do not listen to the voice that says, “not good enough”, “forgotten”, “washed up”, “unqualified”, “fool”.  Instead listen as the Author of All sends you forward with new words:

“Chosen”, “Esteemed”, “Friend”, “Daughter”, “Son”...

"Image bearer".

Don't Wait to Create

Get moving.  Put something on paper.  Anything.

Grab a brush and splash some color or take a pen and fashion some words.  Don’t think, just do.

The color doesn’t have to be brilliant to shine and the words don’t have to make a sentence to make sense…just get going.

Writer’s block?  What to create?  What if it’s no good?

No time for excuses, no critic can fully critique those who create.

Go!



Post It on the Refrigerator

Your art doesn't have to have wall space at the Guggenheim to capture the imagination of others. It doesn't need to have it's own exhibit at MoMA to create a following. And it certainly doesn't need to be hung next to a Rembrandt at the Louvre to shape the world.

The refrigerator will work just fine.

We all have a forum in which to share our thoughts, our ideas, our art. It might be the corner of a local coffee house outfitted with a stool and microphone, a bulletin board in the break room at work, or a kitchen table surrounded by family and friends.

We all have a refrigerator in which to bring our art to the public.

And so your family, friends, and co-workers; those who share the same niche interest as you are waiting. Waiting to hear from you; waiting to see just what you will post on the refrigerator that will shape the way the rest of us view the world.

What will you post on your refrigerator?

Doodlers Unite!

In a recent post I discussed my propensity to doodle. Sunni Brown's short talk on TED is good reminder of the doodle's importance.

Camouflage Dragons

When I asked my son what color he was making his dragon, without skipping a beat he said, "Camouflage".

I didn't realize that "Camouflage" was a color (my hunting friends are way ahead of me on this one). However, what I can tell you is that a camouflage dragon is interesting to look at.

I've seen blue dragons, purple dragons, and yellow dragons before. But a camouflage dragon?

That's worth a second look.

Never before have we had more opportunity to create things that are worth a second look. We have access to tools via the web, through photoshop, and in our Crayola boxes that can help us bring to life what we could once only imagine.

So the obvious question: What is your camouflage dragon? What will you create today that is worth a second look?

Doodle

I am a doodler.

I doodle in notebooks, in the margins of important documents, and during meetings to keep my mind from wandering farther than it has already traveled.

Doodling offers no rules or outlined plan for a measured result. There are no misplaced marks when doodling, only new lines of intrigue. Doodling is freeing; no critic, no profit-loss statement to be analyzed, and no expectation of "company growth".

Yet for some, doodling is paralyzing. "What should be drawn?" "What if it doesn't turn out right?" "What if no one likes it?" These questions should never be entertained in the doodle process. They are anti-doodle.

Doodling is about uninhibitedly exploring "new", simply "because". Doodling is about getting something on paper as it just might be enough to birth inspiration. Doodling is about releasing that which we have held captive for fear of not fitting in.

I need to doodle more. Our world needs to doodle more. It begins with you.

What will you doodle?

The Art Around You

Last Saturday I was with my family at a collaborative art show/experience downtown Grand Rapids called Art Prize. Artists from all around the world entered their work to be on display throughout the downtown area.

Art in the buildings, outside of the buildings, on the buildings, street performers...at Art Prize, art is everywhere.

The Art is impossible to ignore.

In my daily routine Art doesn't emerge as brilliantly as it does at Art Prize. The mundane of each day (looking as it did the day before) has a way of neutralizing anything that speaks afresh. Sometimes in a sea of repetition, painted in variants of grey, it seems as if Art has left long ago.

This void of Art, beauty, creativity, and wonderment creates a vacuum in which the air itself becomes too difficult to breathe.

Yet the Art is not gone.

It is there; the Blue of the Sky, the Texture of the Tree Trunk, the Sound of Children, the Chill of a Fall Rain.

Lying just beneath the surface of the Institution, the cog of Industry, the Normal, and the Mass Produced, Art is everywhere.

It takes creative insight, the Artist, to excavate that which society has covered over; to point to the beauty ignored because of mass repetition. In a world where Industry is on the decline we need Artists more than ever, to open our eyes to the beauty that has been there all along; to point out for others what has always been present.

Wherever you find yourself today may you be aware of the Art that surrounds you and may you point it out for the benefit of others.

Letting Go of "Supposed To"

There is nothing that kills imagination and creativity quicker than the phrase, “Supposed to”.

“Supposed to” limits one’s possibility to that which has already been done. “Supposed to” may make one relevant but it never gives way to the unique creative genius.

“Supposed to” is attractive…it shows us the way, but this is precisely the problem. If the way is easy and can be shown so simply then there is a good chance no new thing will be discovered.

“Supposed to” is for those who want to fall in line, do as they’re told, and live a nice happy life. “Suppose to” doesn’t ask that much of you, just the status quo really. It doesn’t require you to think or to dream; and it certainly doesn’t rock the boat.

And while you are doing what you are “Supposed to” there are others doing what hasn’t been done, doing what they were told shouldn’t be done, or even more: what couldn’t be done. It is those who leave the confines of “Supposed to” that find their soul in the middle of a chorus…singing life out loud.

Living life outside of the “Supposed to” doesn’t mean that life is up for grabs; there are indeed some things we should be about. We should be generous, kind, and supportive of others. We should be encourages of children and our word should stand by exactly what it says.

Life free from the “Supposed to” doesn’t mean that we live life outside of the box, but rather that we dance along its edges. It means that when we go to work, school, or manage the household we will take care of more than our responsibilities…and not because they are a “have to”, but rather because they are an opportunity. An opportunity to do more than the minimum of the “supposed to” but to offer the fullness of our unique self to others.

May you live a life fare away from the demands of the supposed to and learn to live from the unique self God has placed within you.

The Thin Line Between Creative and Crazy (pt. 3)

"Songwriting is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed. You try to sleep, but the song won't let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you're allowed to sleep. It's always in the middle of the bloody night, or when you're half awake or tired, when your critical faculties are switched off. So letting go is what the whole game is."

- John Lennon

A Constructed Heart

As I was cleaning out my 1st grader’s backpack yesterday I came across this craft she had made.

I began to envision her creating this cut-out paper heart. Moving the scissors in a precise manner to give the heart its shape, intentionally placing two heart stickers on each side, and circling each word of a phrase she had memorized in her own heart and now wanted to share with others: “love god love people”.

There is a sweet simplicity to this piece, yet it came by way of a careful and deliberate construction.

May you find joy in living out this simple phrase. May you intentionally embrace all the depths of its practice in the midst of a complex world; always growing in a deeper love and obedience for the Creator and a more sacrificial love for your enemy. And may the heart that is constructed in you beat with such fervor that the hearts of others come alive with the simple hope that has found its home within you.

The Thin Line Between Creative and Crazy (pt. 2)

"It is only true that a lot of artists are mentally ill - it's a life which, to put it mildly, makes one an outsider. I'm all right when I completely immerse myself in my work, but I'll always remain half crazy." - Vincent van Gogh