Yesterday’s Quest-tion was this:
What one small project can you define to start creating into your burning question?
The thing is, that burning question (or rather the spiral of questions) that lead to what is essentially: “What if I existing art could help inspire the art to come, and what if together they could heal our communities, our world, and ourselves?” lead to another important question thread still burning:
What if I just make art and write as inspiration and daily practice move me instead of focusing on how to turn it into a business? What if I follow the path of fun and joy? Read the books I want to read, make the art I want to make, take the classes I want to take? Isn’t it possible, maybe even probable, that the rest will arise from there and my path will become clear?
And then to yet another, as I considered how my Apocalypse Garden project fits in with my path as a Poet | Artist | Optimist:
What if instead of preparing for the worst, I prepared for the best?
And sure, I could easily come up with a project that would fit each one, but what if I combined all three questions into one:
What if focusing on mining and making art instead of building a business gave me the freedom to find my own voice–the one that could eventually support my best work and my best life? And what might that look like?
Experimentation and play. Taking classes. Reading. Going to movies and galleries. Exposing myself to a broader range of thoughts and ideas. Going on Artist Dates, to conferences and lectures. Collaborating with other artists. Getting out of town with a sketchbook and camera. Whatever it takes to keep creativity awake and alive and whatever it takes to set aside daily time and space for creation. To actually create–a little bit every day, and a more than a little bit on some of those days. Which sounds exciting, but it’s not a small project. And then I realized that some of my greatest struggles for direction come from feeling like I have to choose–between writing and quilting and photography, between living life and preparing for the apocalypse, between poetry, novels, memoir, and my deep love of speculative fiction. Which brought me not just to an answer to my small project question, but to my biggest burning question of all:
What if instead of having to choose, I could combine the things I love?
And so, my small project will be to create an object of art that incorporates:
- Words
- Pictures
- Fabric
- Inspiration from existing works of literature, poetry, and art
- And dreaming my way through our world’s uncertain future
Because I am beginning to believe that my path lies not in walking a straight or winding road, but in building a home at the place my roads converge.
I’ll let you know how it goes.