Tag: artist

  • Great artists crave appreciation

    Great artists crave appreciation

    There’s one thing artists crave more than food. And, that’s appreciation.

    All humankind craves appreciation.

    The thing is that we were created to be appreciative by the great artist.

    When he spoke his first words, “Let there be light”, he got the ball rolling. He called light, day and separated it from dark, night.

    He was pleased. And, this was only day one.

    Like all artists, God wanted someone to appreciate and be in awe of his great work.

    So he created humankind in his own image to be in awe of his creation.

    He saw the world through each one of their eyes and he was pleased.

    Humankind appreciates little

    But, soon he must have realised that humankind appreciated little.

    So, he manufactured the original sin. Humankind fell from grace and was separated from Eden. And from him.

    He brought darkness and separation to humankind.

    It was only when humankind was disconnected from God that they realised what they’d lost.

    And, ever since then, humankind has been trying to get back to their source and reconnect with it. That’s our real journey, today.

    • If there’s not darkness, there cannot be light.
    • If we don’t struggle and suffer, how do we know what happiness is?
    • If we don’t struggle and suffer how do we appreciate it when the struggle and suffering ends?
    • How can we be grateful?
    • How can we be in awe?

    Our greatest sin

    Our greatest sin is ingratitude. We were given the perfect home and the perfect life. All that was required of humankind was to be in awe and gratitude for the great work of art we live in.

    Humankind and its self-indulgent, entitled nature stuffed that up good and solid.

    As instruction, let’s take a tiny event in time. The impending ‘Day Zero’ in Cape Town is almost upon us. The day the taps run dry, darkness will descend upon South African humankind.

    Nobody appreciated the Eden we were in. Nobody appreciated the water supply. There was no awe and gratitude for this great blessing. Judging by the way we’re destroying God’s masterpiece, the darkness is only going to get worse.

    Oh, you thought you were his masterpiece?

    Maybe.

    But, perhaps you and I are just meant to be the witnessers of his masterpiece.

    And, if you believe we are his masterpiece, then we’re stuffing that up as well. Our smoking, drinking, drugs, avarice, selfishness and carelessness is destroying humankind.

    Can you imagine how aggrieved we’d be if someone defaced Leonardo da Vinci’s, Mona Lisa? The world would be in uproar. We would find it hard to believe that a right-thinking human could commit such a terrible thing. Why, it could only be psychopathic degenerate who could do such a revolting deed, couldn’t it?

    By that logic, then it can only be a degenerate who would stuff up his or her own body and the planet that houses it, couldn’t it?

    It’s sad that we would be more upset by the destruction of a Mona Lisa than the destruction of our own bodies and planet.

    HumankindThus, we were created to bear witness to God’s great masterpiece. He sees every nook and cranny of his art through our eyes.

    He painted this picture and gave us this story to enchant and entertain us. All he wants in return is appreciation. He doesn’t get that enough (or at all) so he gives us his great gift, the gift of suffering. It is only when we don’t have that we appreciate what we do have.

    For there to be light, there has to be darkness. It is the way of things.

    The trick for us is to appreciate every moment we have left on this plane. Let’s be in awe and gratitude for this great gift that we have right now.

    God’s an artist. You’re an artist. Let’s celebrate and appreciate this.

    Jacques de Villiers helps organisations, professional speakers, authors and entrepreneurs triumph through: sales training, motivational speaking and consulting.

  • The Warrior and the Artist

    The Warrior and the Artist

    Have you ever wished that you were somewhere else or doing something else? I used to want to be somewhere else, doing something else until I came across the notion of the warrior and the artist.

    It helped me shift from wanting something ‘out there’ to being grateful that I was privileged enough to be given the opportunity to become who I truly am. A being who is grateful and in awe that he gets to play around a little on this planet before he is called home.

    The Warrior

    A warrior fights both external and internal battles. The internal battles are infinitely harder. If you know this, you are already on the path to becoming a true warrior. The internal battles are the ones the warrior has to fight every day to become who she truly is.

    The warrior understands that the ultimate victory is victory over self – the victory over sloth, selfishness, ego, vanity and pursuing stuff. The warrior gets that her job is to sort out her head and her heart and to strive for a life of selfless service to others. And, to work on stuff. The warrior is prepared to die for her comrades, causes and countries She’s selfless.

    A warrior has little concept of time and place. He gets that wherever and whenever he is … this is where he’s supposed to be. In that moment. Because every moment is an opportunity to work on his inner self. Every moment is instructive and is an opportunity to do work that matters. Be it a mundane moment (replacing a lightbulb) or momentous one (really listening and connecting with a loved one).

    The Artist

    The artist speaks to the work we have to do. Too many of us are results-focused and we want to produce something tangible. I get that. In our work life, we’re paid for results, aren’t we? But how many of us are like artists, taking joy from the process? How many of us love the work for the work’s sake and not just for the result? Artists are nurtured by the actual doing of the work …the painting, the writing, communicating with a child, washing the dog, washing dishes, calculating a sum, solving a problem, taking a photo, serving somebody a cup of coffee, meditating. It matters not what they do because it’s all art to them. Everything we do is creation. And, I’m sure you get that we’re all artists. We all create something, no matter how insignificant we may think it is. Artists know that sometimes we’ll produce mediocrity and sometimes we’ll produce a masterpiece.

    Both artists and warriors don’t wish to be doing anything else but what they are doing in this moment. Why? Because we’re creators and it makes us happy to create. Because we are warriors and it gives us a chance to fight the inner battles and become truly who he is.

    However, choosing the warrior path is not easy because we actually have to deal with ourselves. And, more often than not, it’s not pretty. So, we choose not to deal with ourselves and distract ourselves with that outside of us. But, I think we owe it to ourselves to do the inner work because it’s so awesome to have been given the opportunity to play in this human endeavour, albeit for such a short time. I love Carl Jung’s take on finding oneself: “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”

    And, of course, choosing the life of an artist is not easy, either. Creating is not easy. It’s messy. It’s chaotic. It’s failure after failure. It’s inconvenient and seldom goes to plan. But it’s necessary. Because it’s the attention we give the moment we are in where the real magic happens. This is when we create something wondrous. Something that makes the soul sing. Something called art.

    Photo Credit: http://www.hp.com/hho/kungfupanda/