The Art Life

I took last weekend off to attend Beyond Fest in Los Angeles. It is a film festival that takes over the American Cinematheque in Hollywood usually late September into October. We've gone off and on over the last few years. This year I decided to block out a large chunk of my calendar to attend.

David and I spent the weekend watching (and happily meeting) one of our favorite directors, David Cronenberg. I'm still shaking my head that the last time we saw him Tristan (now 21) was in a baby stroller. 

There was a young girl in the audience who said The Fly was her favorite film. It made me think of all of the films that we took Tristan to as a baby. We would have people come up to as and gasp that they had no idea there was a baby in the theatre. How actions can influence and shape someone's life. 

Over the years people have repeatedly referred to art, film, books, etc... as, "entertainment" or, "something that isn't "real life."" It's a big pet peeve of mine especially since it's a HUGE part of my everyday life. I live, sleep, eat and breathe art. I can't imagine a world without it. 

Art (in all forms be it a film, book, television show, song, etc...) impacts our lives every single day. Even if and when we don't want it to. 

Brushstrokes on a canvas, notes put together that form an ear worm that you walk around humming for days, a film that you are still thinking about days later, a quote in a book that grabs you. All of these things make an impact on us. What we decide is the good stuff stays with us while the rest gets weeded out. These are the bits of daily life that MAKE us human. To dismiss them as pure entertainment is a disservice to us all.

What is real life? 

Waking up to our daily routine of work, work, work and a little play? What keeps us going? What keeps us connected and real? What gives us glimmers of hope of how the world, how LIFE, could and should be? What makes us human? 

ART:

Something that has embedded itself deep inside me in many forms. Something that has shaped, guided and created me. Something that is not dismissed as entertainment. Something that is me. 

"It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning."

-Vincent Van Gogh

"I am interested in art as a means of living a life; not as a means of making a living."

-Robert Henri

"We will be happy if we can get around to the idea that art is not an outside and extra thing; that it is a natural outcome of a state of being; that the state of being is the important thing; that a man can be a carpenter and be a great man."

--Robert Henri