The art of life is that life is art
Uncovering analogies to implement a more creative, self-empowered approach to living life.
“The duality of art and reality, living life and treating it as such.”
-Matthew Healy
I remember reading this sentence a few years ago, it was one of those sentences that you understood but then, also not. It spoke to me deeply, that much was for sure and it certainly stuck with me for a long time. It held the kind of message you grow into as life moves on and experiences are collected.
I now know what spoke so deeply to my heart but my mind wasn’t quite ready to catch yet: The idea that we create life and thus ourselves, as much as, let’s say a painter, paints their painting.
What is interesting then is the entanglement, the duality of our living life: we are always the creating and the created, at the same time. Our life reflects our inner world, it is painted by our thoughts, feelings, intentions and aspirations.
We are created as we create ourselves, we create as we are being created.
I will mainly focus on the specific art of painting in this article, since the paintings you will see accompanying and complementing my written words are painted by me. Still, it is to say that this can be applied to all creative, passionate processes for all of them include the dimensions of creator, creation, aspects/tools and external context.
Preposition:
Creator/Painter: you. (co-creator, you are creating your path in cooperation with life)
Creations/Paintings: you, your path, the reflections of yourself
Colour palette: life forces, obstacles, external conditions, and situations you find yourself in
Brush: how we approach the external, how we utilise what happens externally, the junction between internal and external, our mindsets, intentions etc.
So with this preposition let us look into the spheres of life where we experience creative processes constantly:
The Intrapersonal Sphere
You create your reality through your thoughts and you are being created and transformed in the process.
You are not the product of external factors (colours), your essence shows itself through how you utilise (paint) those.
By discovering our transformative power we see that the situations we find ourselves in are not absolute but relative to us to creating a meaning to give to them.
Do you create or are you constantly being created?
Are you only creation or also creator?
We need both for the balance, creating by participating in life and giving it a course and also being created through knowing that you don’t have control over the outcome but you do have control over what you put into life.
Exactly in the way how often times paintings don’t turn out the way we planned to, that at some point in the creation, the colours of the painting (happenings in our lives that we integrate into our path) derive from our impact and unravel their own dynamic.
We can show the way through our intentions and sketch the shape (brush strokes) but how this shape will be filled and how the colours will interact with each other is not in our control- that’s our collaborative communication with life in creating our path.
It’s not about dictating life but about moving with the changes and the flow, going with the colours and how they reveal themselves on the canvas, they work themselves into something bigger, an interconnected network sparked by your inner world.
It all starts within, your inner world is what moves the brush and creates patterns. The vivacity of your path is determined by the way you interact with life, do you empower yourself to create with it, to create a unique life that reflects your values and intentions? Or are you solely created by it without bringing your inner world and values onto the canvas?
The Sphere of Communication with Life
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Viktor Frankl
Our path (painting) is a reflection of our inner worlds (brush strokes, technique etc.) and how those interact with life (colours).
This describes our role of communicating and exchanging with life, there are colours given to us by life and just like a painting is a reflection of the artist’s inner world, we affect our path in a similar way. This existence gives us a canvas, life gives us colours and what is produced on the canvas is our unique path, guided by our values, thoughts, intentions (brush strokes).
We are co-creating with life, life unfolds itself as we make it ought to, it shines through our filter and it can only ever be as bright as we ourselves are. Just like a painting can only be as curious and bold, as the one creating it.
The profoundness of a painting is defined by the boldness of brush strokes- dare to fail and you will see that every failure is nothing but a new context, an offering for creation, nothing is ever really lost, it can all be transformed, reinterpreted, it’s all a matter of your perspective.
Just like Stoic philosopher Seneca said that the obstacle becomes the way, the colour becomes the painting.
The way we respond to the challenges of life shapes our path. The way the colour is painted on the canvas with the brush shapes the artwork. Each of us carry within the endless power of transformation. But to transform and integrate something, especially the more difficult emotions and happenings, we first have to accept them as being part of our path, embracing and experiencing the sorrow and being curious of how we can integrate it into our path to give it new meaning and direction. To unleash its creative potential.
In life we can always choose between embracing or pushing way. Between integrating or neglecting.
Life doesn’t happen to you but through you. You are utilising what happens- to create, to transform, to compose.
Suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning. -Viktor Frankl
An artistic approach to life shows us that just as an artist uses art to channel their hardships, we also can channel our sorrows and difficult emotions by giving them a meaning, by creating a meaning, instead of being blindly defined by the things happening to us, we shape the experiences.
Life provides us feedback in the shape of situations, people etc. Life is neutral and ready to respond to your thoughts (brush, painting technique). Anything that happens to you is neutral until you give it its meaning, that is our power of transformation, of creation. Just like colour is neutral until painted, until you contrast it, complement it and it unfolds its intrinsic power.
“Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything evolves, everything flies and goes away.” – Frida Kahlo
Creation is endless, as we move through life-through the process of creation- we are changed and recreated constantly.
Art, thus life, is about transformation and exploration not about arriving and finding oneself. It’s about the constant flow between creation and integration, the flow of transformation. It is all dynamic, ever moving.
Life as art, and art as life show us the endless process of exploration and everything being an everlasting continuous artwork; always in the process and yet, or precisely because of that, a masterpiece.
Nothing is ever really finished, we never really arrive, all grows and transforms through new knowledge, new eyes to look at things, new perspectives, new contexts, different people added to the whole picture revealing a different effect.
So don’t be in such a hurry to arrive somewhere; look around, you are already where you are supposed to be: at the only point for creation, the here and now.
Nothing is ever really static, so dive into the exploration, take with you as much impressions, knowledge and experience as your heart can carry and see that life is not about arriving somewhere and finding yourself but about creating yourself and discovering the constant changes.
The Interpersonal Sphere
“There’s nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” -Vincent Willem van Gogh
Art does not end with the creating, in fact it is constantly recreated, reinvented. Through interaction the colours find a new way of expression, the painting reveals different dimensions through different understandings.
The connecting with others is crucial for self-knowledge, for increasing the contextual dimensions in which we can exist, just how a painting looks different to each and every one of us and therefore is never a total, completed thing but changes in expression and meaning any time it is exposed to someone experiencing it.
Other people also work as colours in our lives, we relate to them, they relate to us, colours already painted on our canvas get a whole new meaning by being contrasted to theirs.
Just like red suddenly looks whole different being contrasted to green than it does being contrasted to blue.
People and interactions in our lives give us space for re-creation, for seeing ourselves and the settled colours through a new exposure. We constantly re-experience our essence through finding different ways of expressing our essence with others.
The process of creating ourselves is self-awareness, but sharing this creation with others is where self-knowledge can arise.
This approach of life being art and art being life can also help us to understand that there is no absolute truth- only perspective and subjectivity of perception.
Becoming aware of the knowledge that my green is not your green can spark empathy and compassion towards our uniquely different experiences of life. It can help let different conversations arise with less judgment and more understanding regarding the other person’s life. Considering each person has their own path (painting) and that this path is unique to them since it reflects this specific person’s inner world. Everyone mixes colours differently, uses different painting techniques, has a different perception and preference of using colour.
So, it can also help us letting go of unhealthy comparison and wanting to live another person’s life. The other person’s life is not a fit for you because it is entirely created by the world they carry inside and you yourself have a whole different, uniquely beautiful world to discover inside of you, a painting waiting to come to live.
So, your painting will never have to be like another’s painting, we need the differences for exchange and learning, that’s the beauty of diversity.
“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.” – Alan Watts
You yourself are your greatest work of art.
Everything is a prompt for creation, dive into life and let the colours fill you up. Be painted by life and paint life, that’s the correlating balance. Embrace every happening and don’t try to escape life and instead face it with curiosity and wonder.
By living our emotions, by living colour, we can paint more colourful pictures. By inviting everything inside of us to come to life, we can paint more honest pictures, live more sincere lives.
The next time you are feeling blue add some yellow.
Transform it into something brighter. Contrast and complement to understand the essence of both bright and dark.
Your life is a painting, make sure to let courage and compassion lead the brush.
This approach can help us empower ourselves to not live life on autopilot but actually engaging in it and live it in a way that postulates our power of creation. A way of life which is curious about all the colour compositions to work with and not worried about how to fit them in.
And it is not just about painting or using painting as a guiding analogy to live life. Find your passion and live your life after it. Whether that be learning about life through pottery, through creating music, through photography, through surfing or other physical activities.
Ask yourself what it is about this thing that makes it your passion and how those attributes can also be applied to serve as an analogy for living life and moving through hardship.
Find your passion and let it inspire you to new ways and approaches to live life.
