I love this TEDx talk by Laura Hollick.
She says that art is about making our imagination real. It is a bridge from the inner world and the outer one.
The first step of the artistic process is to imagine our new reality, our new world, our new self.
The second step is to go for it. To move forward until the imagined becomes real. Using Laura's words, “until you make your imagination so real that it is undeniable.“
Unfortunately, most of the time, our imagination is crushed by reality. We look inward, and we see all this potential, our creative power generates such a compelling future for ourselves. Then we open our eyes, and it doesn’t seem to fit with the reality around us.
Yeah, maybe it’s possible, but it’s such a long and uncertain journey that most of the time, we give up before we begin.
We convince ourselves that it’s just a dream.
We will never get there.
And you know what, it’s true.
We may never get there.
But that never stops an artist from going for it.
And you are an artist.
If you’re alive, you are an artist.
You have the power to imagine your future self.
Hold on to that vision and every day take a small step towards it.
Like Michelangelo did with his David. For four years, he patiently chipped away all the unnecessary material until he revealed to the world the remarkable statue that he imagined within what was just a massive block of marble.
Will you get to the end?
Maybe not. But that’s ok as long as you keep moving forward.
Because in the end, you are both the art and the artist.
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
Leonardo da Vinci