I love this time of year. The start of something. The start of something new. A fresh start. A time to begin again. An opportunity to reinvent one's self or dig deeper into a commitment that went awry or you lost your way from.
For dreamers, creatives, empaths and deep feelers, it is a time to feel into what is important and what is meaningful. To talk to one's soul and ask it what it needs and most wants to express, do, bring about in the world.
When I was a child I hated the sound of the news coming on, on my parents TV. The sound of the 60 minutes theme song with clock ticking on a Sunday night, sounded odes of doom in my imaginative mind and sensitive soul. It marked the resumption of school the next day. That place where I felt exposed, judged, trapped, unseen and did not belong. And where my creative spirit and heart was crushed and trampled on. But also, the depressing heaviness of the news sent me on a life long journey of actively avoiding anything news related...particularly politics. That was until I turned 50. At that ripe old age, something turned in me. A stirring in my heart, soul and mind. I became deeply protective of my children (even more so than I already was) and deeply caring about all children of the world and the world they would inherit. I started to worry about how the lives of our youth would be lived, in a time when I would not be around. This stirring of protectiveness brought about a curiosity. Enough to bring my head out of my day to day haze of living in my self absorbed bubble and life juggle. I started to watch the news. But all I saw there was theatre. I started to observe our politicians in parliament. Again, all I saw was theatre and empty voices. "All the world is a stage...etc"
I wanted to know what was going on in the world. The truth. I wanted to know how the world operated. Cue, deep dives into political history, philosophy, theology, mythology, spiritualism. I looked up world news. Startled, I began to realise that here in my country we live in a censored 'news' bubble. A knowledge vacuum, where everything that didn't fit with the political party of the day's agenda, and their corporate sponsors/those pulling the strings...we would not be informed of it. The bigger picture was and is, being withheld from us. Our focus, deliberately narrowed into frivolous celebrity & sports goings on as distractions and entertainment. And more sinister...behavioural psychology techniques actively used on the masses via our 'friendly' breakfast morning show hosts, to influence, brainwash and divide. "Surely not, in such a democracy as ours"? I questioned again and again. Until I could no longer ignore it.
We live in a false, engineered stupor. All the 'intellects' focused on their little specialised field or part. Constantly distracted by the treadmill of money making, bill paying followed by numbness inducing consumption, in this rat race of a contrived 'life'. Nobody seeing how the sum of the parts make up this false 'whole' being actively and deliberately fabricated around us. Divided, disconnected, warring amongst ourselves. Countries, religions, people pitted against one another. Technology doing the slow creep to entangle us all in a way of 'life' that nobody noticed being built up around them...let alone consciously consented to.
I won't go further into my thoughts on all of the above. My job as artist is to delve into the muck, the heaviness, to see, interpret and transmute into images on canvas. Suffice to say, for several years I dragged myself through the sludge of the falsely contrived world we were born into in order to come back with some kernel of truth to impart. I found them.
I am full of hope...as always. But now, with eyes wide open.
In mid December, I shutdown all of my social media. Deleted my facebook and instagram accounts. I needed to close off the echo chamber of information that had been blaring at me for years. Granted, I played my part in creating it by agitating the algorithms I built up on my feeds based on where I clicked, scrolled, responded.
The abyss of the internet, whilst interesting holds 'knowledge' that is entirely man made and edited. Some information whilst we may be curious should not be consumed as it will harm our heart and soul. It takes discernment to know when not to click and not dig deeper. History is obscured, bended and re-created. Leading to emptiness, with information prone to being manipulated, twisted, deleted and reinvented. Entertainment at best, dangerous at worst and a complete derailment towards anything that is truth.
I've realised how much 'noise' was being blasted into my head, heart and soul. The young not equipped to manage it, let alone hold any reference points to how life could be lived before the void and dungeon of the internet. Truth will only be found with a laptop closed, a phone battery dead and by turning to whats outside our window. People irl. Nature, animals, heart connections.
I will resume the threads of connection on social media in a purposeful way. I don't have all the answers, but I feel much more 'knowledgeable' from my sojourn within, without all the noise. My creativity is peaking, my heart and soul is full of hope for our youth. WE get to choose how we LIVE. On our terms. Choosing to turn away from technology when we wish to and need to fill our cups.
How has this got anything to do with art?
Everything.
How we think, feel, interact, move through the world is a form of art. We/you are creating your world from the minute you wake up and what you choose to place your attention and intention on. We can go into the world encumbered and weighed down by the deluge of noise in this information world we find ourselves in, or we can discard it for a time (or permanently) and not let it rule us. We can seek truth by going inward, away from all the distractions.
For this new year, my deepest hope is to continue to wrap all those children of the world protected in a little colourful paint bubble full of hope for their futures. It is all I wish for. Peace, happiness, creativity and love for all.
See you on the canvas.
x Tanya