Headline

The need to share

Sharing completes a cycle that starts with expression.

For most artists I know, the drive to express themselves through creation is not a choice but an uncontrollable and irrepressible necessity.

As energy accumulates in our body –a by-product of our thoughts, feelings and emotions– it creates a vibratory resonance that calls for resolution which unless liberated can become quite uncomfortable. What makes us artists is that we have learnt –consciously or otherwise– to

release this pent-up energy by transferring it into our art. In a way, our art becomes an energetic record of our unique set of experiences, of the highs and lows of our life-long journey of discovery.

While the process of creating the work itself is an intensely personal –for many done in solitude and in a state of "flow" that is oblivious to anything other than the work itself– it remains incomplete until it is shared.

Reaching out and sharing the unique energy of our work is a force just as compelling as the drive that led to its creation. This second compulsion calls for the work to be revealed and a response from others obtained before the cycle can be closed and its energy released.

Although the process of creating artwork is an intensely personal, it remains incomplete until it is shared with others.

When that piece we have made is shown to others, it starts a new life, it establishes its own private relationships and as creators, we are relieved of this pending debt. This brings about a blissful happiness, a joyful closing and completion, and having released the weight of the energy we carried, we become freer to continue as creators.

Although the creative endeavor requires considerable courage, – we put on the line a huge part of who we are and risk being ignored or ridiculed– we are irrationally compelled to continue forward without any brakes, to keep true to ourselves and our art.

While some may interpret this need –or compulsion– as an ego-driven desire for validation and approval, I believe it is a inner aspiration to become one with others, an urge to find common ground and see ourselves reflected in the mirror of another, converging into harmonious unity even if only for a brief and fleeting moment.

From my perspective, in a great majority of artists the drive to share our creations is independent of the amount of praise or the monetary reward we achieve. Artists need money to continue creating and almost all will welcome recognition, but in the absence of these, the need to share with others and spread our personal vision persists, otherwise it would become a lonely and frustrating pursuit.

Top