Go Experience Art
March 2, 2015
photo by Charles Forerunner
I'm a creative. It's my work and my passion and the beat of my heart. You may not be. It doesn't matter. What I have to say to you (and to me) is still true.
Go experience art.
When I say art, I mean the literal dictionary definition: the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination.
Go to a museum where even the heavy glass doors in the entrance seem to be a masterpiece. Walk through halls and rooms adorned with pieces made centuries ago or maybe just last year. Stand before a canvas more than twice your height. Sit on the bench in the middle of the room, far away from the wall, and take it all in.
Go experience art.
Go to a concert where fog fills the air and the lights dance whimsically and the speakers boom with every beat. Stand before the band as they play, swaying and strumming and singing with every ounce of their souls.
Go to a library or a bookstore where pages and pages of words overwhelm you. Choose one, any of the many, and dive in. Lose all sense of time and all awareness of anyone around you as the words wrap you up in a whole new adventure of discovery.
Go to a church or a house of worship where other hearts come next to yours to seek and see and sing and celebrate. Join in or stay silent. Reflect or respond. Take notes or take it all in. Greet your neighbor or gaze around curiously. Open up to it all, let your worries fade away and let your heart be willing to accept and receive.
Go experience art.
Go to a restaurant or a dining room table or a kitchen island where food is put before you, presented with love no matter how fancy or how simple. Eat first with your eyes, observing every detail, every color, every gram, every drop, grain, and morsel. Then, savor every bite. Don't just eat to eat. Eat to truly taste.
Go to a gallery or to a film festival or an open mic night. Go to a musical or play or a dance show. Go see stand up comedy or a poetry slam or a new exhibit. Go see street art or a city skyline or a well-constructed bridge over a river.
Go somewhere you've never been before. Go somewhere familiar but with a new friend. Go somewhere far away. Go somewhere around the corner. Where you go and what you see will impact you. Your eyes will be opened to something you've never seen before.
You will be changed. Maybe you'll be challenged. Maybe you'll be enlightened. Maybe you'll be inspired. Maybe you'll leave feeling lighter, more alive, more at peace, more free. Maybe you'll leave feeling like you have to call a friend and just talk about it all, or like you need to write, or you need to be still, or you need to cry.
Go experience art. Go see things that are beautiful, in any form. Go see expressions and applications of human creative skill and imagination, in whatever way you desire. Whether you're a creative or not, it will make you better. It will change you. And it will be good.