4 minute read
Chapter Three - Purpose
Chapter Three - Purpose
30/8/2018
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Fortunately, we live Not just to get by, But truly live, With passion.
12/5/2020
The purpose of art Is to open your eyes And all senses, To open your mind To know more of yourself And the universe, To connect time, In our whole history as human beings Of longing for beauty and compassion for the other. 14
13/12/2019
It is warmer than I thought today, The sun decided to come out for a moment And shine on the yellow-orange weathered bricks. It then comes through my body by the window That I can feel a part of me lighting up, Glowing, waving to the beam as I am solar powered. I noticed the momentary beauty of the day Is also treasured by the eyes of an artist, As I see my glow in her eyes.
14 Alain De Botton and John Armstrong, Art as Therapy (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2016).
15/06/2018
A common crisis in all developed countries we face nowadays is the lacking purpose, higher purpose in life. Often judged by the conventional standard of success and competition have caused a rapid increase in depression and anxiety in modern society. We were rarely taught in the education system, how to seek for purpose and happiness in life. ‘IKI’ is to live, ‘GAI’ is the reason. IKIGAI is the reason we get out of bed every morning, and is finding the ‘why’s in our life. Luckily, we focus on our passion as artists and turn our capabilities into what we can offer to the world. 15
23/5/2020
‘Rebecca Morris’
Rebecca was my foundation drawing professor at Pasadena City College, where I took on the journey to study art professionally. I knew so little about art or drawing back then when I just came out of the corporate world. I seemed to shift from a complete parallelised world to another. I did not know the difference between different grades of pencil or how to use each, to draw. I remember clearly, she said to the whole class, “treasure the moments that you are struggling, because all the struggles and frustrations are raw energy from early days being an artist, all of that will appear in your work. One day you will be proficient and you know exactly what to do, then it’s hard to find that raw energy”. I was so frustrated everyday. I was struggling every moment in the first 3 years learning the foundation of art and I doubted my decision every other second for changing my career path. I gave up a comfortable life to count on every penny I could possibly earn. I am so far away from my family, friends and everything I know. I was so eager to learn everything in the shortest amount of time. I wanted to draw and paint like the masters. I wanted to find the secret channel to this new world called ART. I wanted to build Rome in one day. The secret was not hidden in the techniques, but the question from Rebecca: “Think about who you are and what you want to be, what you want to express with your art?” This wake-up call is worth every effort. The answer that I have been searching for a long long time.
15 Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles, Ikigai : The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. (Hutchinson, 2017).
29/5/2020
‘Marina Abramović’
“You are either an artist or not! There is no trying to be an artist”, says Marina. Do you have an urge to create every morning you wake up? Art is like oxygen, that you cannot live without. It’s the energy that comes with birth. Being a great artist may have one or two great ideas in your entire life, But be careful with them. Do not be afraid to fail, take risks, Enter the realms of the unknown, Like how Columbus discovered America. Choose the medium or material to best present your ideas. Good art should be luminous, empowering and spiritually lifting. Be present, starting from learning how to drink a glass of water. Looking at the big picture, be open to the unknown. You are free. 16
30/3/2020
In this pandemic crisis, or in general, artists don’t live to survive but live genuinely.
When we think of early Dutch New York
we do not think of the hardships Endured
Perhaps some but not all of them
But if we did we could Survive
16 “Marina Abramović: Advice to the Young, ” Www.Youtube.Com (Louisiana Channel, 2013) <https://youtu.be/8Ck2q3YgRlY> [accessed 7 July 2020].
Uncle Phillip wanted me to
give up my crazy ideas and have a
nice life He want ed me to
Survive
- Richard Tuttle 17
31/5/2020
Fig. 3 | AJ Hickling Streets to Steinway, 2018
The sublime beauty with which every keystroke speaks his wonder and pain exquisite joy and ephemeral insight
17 Richard Tuttle, “Essays — Artists Respond: Richard Tuttle, Mar 26, 2020, ” Pace Gallery, 2020 <https://www.pacegallery.com/journal/essays/artists-respond-richard-tuttle/> [accessed 30 March 2020].
We all have moments of clarity Raw weakness Strength and Unfathomable love And everything in between.. it is all here I close my eyes and become liquid So grateful for this talent. - Emma Bennett 18
30/5/2020
If we can see the extraordinary within the ordinary, We can have gratitude and appreciation for the small things in life – The taste of tea, The smell of rain in the desert, The in and out movement of the breath. By being at ease with the ordinary we release Or grip on having to become better, Or different, Or more special than what we already are. 19
18 AJ Hickling, Streets to Steinway, 2018 <https://evolvingrhythms.bandcamp.com/album/streets-to-steinway> [accessed 31 May 2020]. 19 Tias Little, Meditations on a Dew Drop: Poems and Teachings on the Flow of Presence (Prajna Yoga, 2010).
