What is the point of art?
What is it really all about?
Where does art belong? What is its role in our lives?
I know these are topics that have been extensively written about, thought about, and pontificated upon… I have listened to many podcasts on the subject and have a bookshelf full of creativity books that explore a wide spectrum—from internal fulfilment to broader societal purpose. Yet I find myself asking the question again, as an artist…
It makes sense that everyone needs to find their own individual response, and that this response can—and should—evolve over time.
Our recent show, SPECTIVE, was a wonderful exhibition—a delightful coming together of four completely different people that created a beautiful mutualism. Our work, while diverse, shone together in a way that was deeper and richer than the sum of its parts.
Now that it is over, I find myself reflecting on why I do what I do. Having spent most of my life in careers that had a very clear motivation—to save the world and make people happy—I now, as an artist, have to dig deeper to find my purpose and motivation.
A fellow artist shared a quote with me recently: “Art is not a thing, it is a way.” It’s a quote from Elbert Hubbard—and I must digress to say that Goodreads listed a number of his quotes that resonated. Both “Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not,” and “No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one” seem particularly poignant to me right now.
But to get back to the point… “Art is a way.” Making art is, I believe, a way to live more fully. It is a way to express—to take ideas and make them tangible and touchable—and through that process, to clarify and evolve them. Making art is a way to be present, to be authentic, to know yourself, and to connect with other humans through shared feelings and thoughts.
And none of these things have anything much at all to do with the actual product being made, nor do they have much to do with galleries and the professional art world. Sometimes I feel like my work is too humble and that I ‘should’ be making more sculptural ‘high art’ pieces—but this is when my focus shifts to the ‘thing’ rather than the ‘way’.
Recently, this was brought home to me powerfully. At the same time as I was sweating over putting together the gallery show, a friend reached out to me. She had seen one of my wattle mugs on Instagram, representing resilience and renewal of life, and she shared that she was going through surgery and chemotherapy. She asked if she could have a mug like that one, because she thought that drinking her morning tea from my wattle mug would help her stay connected to her own resilience through this awful time. And really, if a mug can do that, I think that is really special.
And in this, my friends, I remember what I think art is for. Art is to help us feel something we need to feel.
So whether it’s in a gallery or in a mug of tea, I am reminding myself why I do what I do. I don’t do it to look pretty on a gallery wall. I don’t do it to compete with other artists or to be admired. I don’t even really do it to make money (there are much easier ways to make money, believe me!). I do it because I know that if my heart is in what I make, what I make might just touch someone else’s heart at just the time they need it.
So my job is simply to make sure that my heart stays in a good place, and that I create things that mean good things and which might connect with other people’s hearts.
So tell me… what would you like your mug to mean to you?
What would you like to feel?
