ART AND COURAGE

When I read, listen to music, attend a performance or see an exhibit, it often occures to me that art takes courage. Courage and a special recipe of confidence.

The courage isn't so much in the sacrifices that come without a reliable income or weaving through life with an obscure identity that is difficult for people to relate to at parties.

It is the healthy ego and passionate drive that motivates the artist to put it "out there" and expose themselves. And it's the intrinsic private victory experienced having let go of that creative need.

Some readings to share:

"The courage to be is the ethical act in which man affirms his own being in spite of those elements of his existence which conflict with his essential self-affirmation"

Paul Tillich "The Courage To Be"

"The object, which is back of every true work of art, is the attainment of a state of being; a state of high functioning, a more than ordinary moment of existence."

Robet Henri

"life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgement difficult."

Hippocrates