You Can’t Rush Art!
One of the most satisfying scenes in cinematic history would probably be in Toy Story 2 when the toy cleaner is cleaning Woody. I mean, you’ve got this chill, moseying elevator soundtrack in the background accompanying these curiosity-satiating shots of all the cleaner’s cool little tools and bits and bobs (What could be cooler than a drawerful of eyeballs?). And then there’s the actual cleaning part — isn’t it so gratifying to watch Woody’s arm being resewn, or his hair being resprayed, or even the brush painting over Andy’s name on his boot? Yeah, yeah, I know it’s supposed to be wrong because Andy’s still his kid, BUT — stay with me here. ;)
One of the most iconic lines, I would argue, also came from this movie. That part where Al is fussing about how long it will take to fix Woody and the cleaner guy grumbles, “You can’t rush art!” (Film nerds feel free to rant in the comments about the true origin of this line, but just remember that you’ll be talking into a vacuum)
Anyways, is it true? I’m an artist myself, so I feel I have some authority on this question. But this isn’t going to launch into some coffee-fueled rant about how art is what you make of it or that bland Minimalist paintings should be considered equal to Renaissance portraiture or even that the creative arts in general are being taught less in school and that may be a reason why students are becoming so depressed and yada yada yada…
Nah. It’s a lot simpler than that. Maybe even on the tie-dye-shirt-wearing-hippie level. You can’t rush life.
More specifically, you can’t rush the feelings and emotions that come with the situations that life throws at you. Or brush them aside, for that matter.
No, really. You can’t. You shouldn’t. And yet, you do. We all do.
When was the last time you sat down with your favorite Hello Kitty diary (that comes with a lock) and just wrote down what you were feeling? “Dear Diary: My brother is SO STUPID! AND ANNOYING! And my sister is SOOOOOO MEAN!!! Oh, and I think I have a crush on (insert the name of a boy at church here)!!!”
Ok, maybe not like that. More like, “October 11, 2019: Feeling a mixed range of emotions yet also somewhat productive today. Was able to complete (insert tasks here) and also talked to (insert close family member here). I think my life is going in an okay direction, but feel like I could be doing so much more. Here are the things I think I can improve about myself.” And so on and so forth. It might seem mundane, but you can find meaning in anything if you look for it.
Some days, it might just be a sentence. “Felt super lonely and listened to depressing music.” “Today, I ate a chocolate donut.” “Why are people so dependent on their devices?”
Other days, it might be a full-blown essay about the inner workings of your mind and how you went from an academic overachieving neurotic perfectionist to a disillusioned baguette who tells self-deprecating jokes and Googles MBTI memes.
Unless you’re some sort of psychopath, my assumption is that everyone here feels emotions. Or maybe you deal with them, like you would with stocks. “Let’s see, today I’ll invest in JOY. Looks like things are going well there.” And then BAM, 10 minutes later you’ve lost EVERYTHING as Joy loses value in the market and is beaten by its competitor, Happiness.
Really, though, how are you feeling? How are we as a society feeling? There’s so much going on now. So much to do, so much to see, so much to buy and eat and listen to and read and make and destroy and put together and take apart…It’s madness. In our rush to turn our lives into artistic masterpieces of success and belonging and renown and fame and financial stability, we are muddying the deepest parts of ourselves…painting over the names that are written on the bottom of our boots, ballet flats, sandals, Balenciagas…
I could go deep and dark really quickly. But you’ve probably already read a lot of this kind of stuff and had enough. You’re done with the depressing monologues about the desperate state of this planet and its inhabitants. You know things are bad. You want to do something about it.
You do, right?
Well, why didn’t you say so before?
Here’s something I came up with. It’s called Three Fun Facts. Just kidding. (I actually don’t know what it’s called yet so if you have any suggestions let me know.) Here we go:
FEEL your emotion. Don’t suppress it. That’s bad. It’ll come out eventually.
FOCUS on the cause or possible reasons why you are feeling the emotion.
FREE your emotion. Pray and give it to God. Write about it in your Hello Kitty Diary and then rip out the page and throw it away. Draw, doodle, scream into your pillow, talk to a close friend or loved one, cook a meal that requires a lot of chopping so you can take it out on the bellpeppers. Actually, I take that back. Knives and emotions don’t go together.
I just recently came up with this, so whoever’s reading is basically a guinea pig for my psychological experiments. Sorry. And yes, I still have trouble following my own advice. I’m not perfect.
You can’t get rid of your emotions. To be human is to have them. Sometimes your emotions can paint your life in beautiful, shimmering colors, while other days are darker, more muted, less alive.
Feelings are like clouds. They come and go. They can be as insignificant as tiny wisps of cirrus floccus, or as transparent and distant as noctilucent clouds at dusk, or as ominous and threatening as cumulonimbus clouds, or as mundane and flat as altostratus sheets.
(I needed an excuse to share some of my cloud-obsession-fueled poetry, so bear with me.)
And like clouds, feelings take time to be processed, to be felt, focused on, and then freed from your mind. A cloud doesn’t just form and disappear in a second. Usually. Unless you’re studying chemistry and can prove me wrong. It can take hours and hours for it to accumulate or dissipate. It’s the same with emotions and feelings.
If you can’t rush art, then you can’t rush life, and that means you can’t rush through your emotions. It’s as easy as you’re willing to think it is.
