Artists understand their audience. They understand their audience because they do the work of understanding the human condition through understanding themself. The goal isn’t so much how to say something as it is how to connect with their audience. We know if we can touch something real, we have the capacity to inspire that in others. This is what guides us. From here, we decide the form of the “message”. The form is not only the artwork. The art is more deeply in the connections of the experiencer.

Feeling counts. Presence counts. There is a reason your personal experience varies greatly between hearing an academic present their research and an expert telling their life story. Artists speak through experience to convey truths they have come to know through their experiences. We want you to come into a deeper experience with life…a deeper experience of yourself.

You could order one hundred books on Amazon right now. You could read them over the next three years. You would be presented with stories and possibly new concepts. As usual, it is how you decide to bring concepts into your waking life that makes the difference. One person might actually become depressed while reading those books because they feel they haven’t done much with their life. They might sink further into the shadows and grip more tightly to how they have always coped with life. Another person might only get three books in and think “Holy fuck, I’ve been making excuses my whole life. I can’t honestly give more time to another book until I make some changes in my life and get on track”.

I love books. Don’t get me wrong. I have been a book reading idealist with many books I’ve never read and not sure I will. What I am getting at is this. Today, someone might have the floor drop out of their life and this tragedy might be the beginning of the best life they have ever known. No books required. It is all about how we approach life and how we respond. This is art.

What is experience (ie. impression, sense, perception)? What is the nature of things? What is real? What is love? These are maybe just a few of the questions that drive artists.

Our practice is the means to our evolution because our practice is about understanding. We constantly loosen where we find we are rigid. We find where things “flow” and study there. We recognize patterns and qualities. We are students and teachers. We learn about the world and how to navigate the ever-deepening landscapes we uncover. We bring this skill and qualities into life.

We recognize we are misunderstood by society while at the same time not giving a fuck. We remember where we have come from because we remember what it took to become who we are. We are able to focus on our work wholeheartedly without drifting into self-loathing, because our work isn’t about seeking validation or proving something. We don’t need anything from you..even though it might frustrate you. Art is about offering opportunities. For some of us it’s a therapy that feels like it has kept us alive.

We engage with the systems at play and the mental constructs that energize them through offering the general show of life a respite of some kind. Ten people will react to the same thing in ten different ways, and all ten might say “This is {Fill in the Blank}”. One person might feel inspired. One might feel humiliated. One might feel terrified. There might actually be one person that doesn’t unconsciously leap to making a decision right away…they are in the magic.

Artists are always waking up and their process leaves a trail of opportunities for others to do the same. We wake up through understanding. Understanding is not simply the ability to store an idea and regurgitate it through socially agreeable forms. Understanding is like art. Understanding is an experience like life. Life is about living and dying. Life is about learning and growing. Things come and things go. The artist is always creating and finding that new “middle”.

It can be fun to be cerebral. I mean it might initially seem easier to sit back and fantasize or critique while thinking we know something. It can be quite entertaining to feel so “right”. It does take almost all of one’s energy to constantly be filtering their experiences through right and wrong, good and bad, in or out, telling it what it is, instead of learning how to become more open and comfortable.

I don’t know of any better motivation for personal transformation than the dissatisfaction of what doesn’t actually make us happy. It’s up to you if you want to be that honest with yourself. This is step one.

Artists show up to life and work with it. They are both life and “covered in it”. The craft is what they are and it is an ever-expanding story. Just as soon as they know they have done the work, the next step intuitively presents itself. The process isn’t about proving. Unfolding is the result of genuine experience. I could call this authenticity in action. The question “Am I authentic in my life?” could take you on a life-changing adventure.

Society is the result of the patterns that have created it. We were supposably taught what “learning” is. This looked like the ability to store and repeat concepts. The more efficiently we could do this the more we were “rewarded”. We were led to believe we know or understand something because we can communicate concepts…(but is this really the pinnacle of what creates a more intelligent, beautiful, and happy individual and world?).

Here I am bringing us back to experience. I’m doing this because this is what art is all about. Many people have never experienced the present moment. I can already feel some people reading this and thinking how presumptuous of me to say. How arrogant. How rude. What do you mean?

Oh well. I keep showing up because I hope others will.

I say “oh well” because artists aren’t trying to “protect” your perceptions. We are challenging them. We don’t need anything from you, no matter how much it might bother you. Some of us care more about you and whatever you could become through your own personal realizations and process. We could care less about momentary recognition in artificial frameworks.

I could piss you the fuck off today, but in ten years you might think, “ohhhhhh…maybe he was telling me something”. Maybe you never will.