Is art an equalizer for human suffering? In the words of REM’s Michael Stipe “Everybody hurts” not only artists.
The difference is that we can use the hurt to connect to the outer world.
How many of you didn’t instantly love that song? And why?
Because at one point in our lives, we have been there, we can relate so much that it becomes our story.
Often inspiration comes from a dark place, a dark and beautiful place where the silence of a million voices tells a story to those who have been there before.
I suppose that is the unifying factor, the fact of having been there at some point in order to understand, in order to hear.
While the pessimist uses his negative outlook to remain motionless and do nothing because after all, things are the way they are; the optimist does the same because he believes that everything will be alright purely due to his belief that it will be.
The artist takes the tears and rather than whine endlessly in some melodramatic stupor, allows them to flow, in whatever the medium may be, like silence from the stone.
This silence is then translated by who sees and understands.
Works of art are like encrypted messages to the world outside our secret garden.
They tell many stories of laughter and of despair and despondency.
What is important is the attempt at communicating.
We create to communicate, to heal, to find comfort in your eyes.
Perhaps we seek other things, like acceptance, yet what matters, is the act of taking action, rather than hiding behind one dogma or another, and using this to remain paralyzed.
Our lives, our stories, triggered by life itself can leave something behind.
Like a philosopher’s written words, a painting, a sculpture, a photograph, a song or a poem; all these things can help us heal, not only in the moment, but for epochs to come.
Why else do we still get lost deciphering Rodin and Camille Claudel’s world and work?
Because it is real, because it is life and they had the courage to create despite the pain.
Written by Boky Hackel