invasive art

recently i've been kinda thinking a lot about music and art and the creative arts in general. basically, i've been trying to figure out the meaning behind what i do.

so here is where im at:

there are so many stories that are so much more appealing than the story that we seem to live in our day to day lives. in my observations of the world around me (at least a significant portion of western culture), people constantly seem to be longing to join a story that is not their own.

hollywoodism helps us jump into the midst of a story that is being presented to us and to, maybe just for an hour or two or a magazine or two, become a character/star that has a scripted and typically good story. the phenomenon of sporting events. how people who have never even probably touched a football find connectedness with their local team. "WE lost that one...or WE won that one, etc." sports, in a way, allow us to connect to another world. consumerism helps us put on or own things that give others an outward appearance of the world we want to live in. no matter how much we have consumed, we are constantly looking for the next level in order to project a message of a world we want to live in. soccer moms in hummers... need i say more? the list goes on, and on, and on...

now i know these examples are broad, and there are numerous exceptions to the general rule. but the basic premise for most things western culture is obsessed with is that it helps us to step outside of our "world" and enter into a better/different "world." drugs, alcohol, unhealthy relationships, hollywood, reality tv, sports, religion, politics, etc, etc, etc, all kind of function as escapes from our world. we are medicating ourselves by numbing our story through engaging a world not our own. The more we live into the stories of others, the more we can feel less, hear less, hurt less about the world we are living. and eventually... the less connected we become with the very story we are living.

in enters art. i believe art, especially in visual or audible form, truly enters our story. that art, by its very nature, doesn't allow you to enter into another world, but instead invades the world of the person participating in the art. as we look deeply into a painting and colors strike our senses... images tug at our mind's eye... we start to breathe in the painting... and filter it through our story. and as we take it in, its starts to interact with our story and with our experience and begins to explore deep caverns of who we are... where we've been... what we've heard.

as we listen to a song... everything about that song begins to invade us. the harmony of notes, the syncopations of rhythm, the passion of lyrics. everything about the music wraps itself around us, and then slowly starts to invade our story. as it bounces through our ears and into our brain we start to associate the rhythm with an emotion... as it visits our emotions, memories that were long forgotten begin to reappear in images that seem as real as if they were happening right then... as it passes into our soul, it begins to resonate with our story. the lyrics explore deep caverns of who we are... where we've been... what we've heard.

art won't allow you to participate without bringing your story into the participation. it won't allow you to just passively medicate away from your world... in fact, it forces you to interact with your story. and the beautiful thing about it is, as we start to interact with our own story, we start to regain feeling again. each note awakens a little bit more feeling... each brush stroke illuminates another piece of our senses... and soon, the more we allow it, the more we become less numb... and the more we can embrace who we are.

thats... at least for now... where i am at with the concept of art. i hope that people begin to embrace who they are through my art. i hope my art helps people awaken a new sense of feeling in their souls. i hope... that my art... can truly help people live into the beauty of their story. because each of us has a beautiful story. each of us... no matter how dark it has been... has a story that is uniquely ours... and is uniquely beautiful.