The Soulful Sound and Story of Art
Creates The Story of You
From the ancient days of cave painting to the remarkable statues of Michelangelo all the way to our modern museums of art, the concept of art as a story of soul and sound is as old as rain and wind.
My experiences with art are so limited, I feel handicapped even writing about it. Not that long ago, I thought of art as… a painting, a poem, a story, a design, a musical, a song; all things that are part of art – but which don’t really convey true artistic creativity, individually. I seldom connected the dots.
For instance – a painting is only as good as the person viewing it believes it is good. The story, the soul, the sound of the painting is not the story, soul or sound of the painter. The lines and colors on canvas are representative parts of the art – and the story is what the viewer finds in it. The soul is what the viewer feels when she looks at it. The sound is a melody that whispers to her heart.
For the written word, poems and stories, the power comes only when they touch the reader’s soul; when they speak to her inner being; when they will not be ignored. Stories and poems lend imagery to every other form of art, and yet, in and of themselves, they challenge us to draw the world they speak of out of our own experiences – to paint a picture that will sing to us, using tools that are inadequate for the task.
How many of us fail miserably at that? Our silent worlds of musing cannot compare to the other-worldly places authors invent and share. Today’s cinematography plays well with words and pictures, but even then, we are limited to the ‘human experience.’ I give you the still popular movie, Avatar – really just Romeo and Juliet on another planet. Even the special effects were ordinary. Seriously – everything in the movie was based on what we know of climate, environment, people, love, war, and Shakespeare. There was no originality in that movie. IMBO
I find myself musing on the topic of ‘art’ more than ever before – as I approach my 60th birthday. There. I said it. I’ll be 60 in just a few weeks and as hard as I’ve tried to hold this birthday off, it will not be held at bay any longer. <sigh> (One remembers saying to her mother, “I am never going to grow old.”)
In childhood, art was a crayon drawing. Or, a penciled picture of a pet. It was a story about pets – with unpolished images that spoke to me in my grief and solitude. It matters not what I was grieving for or why at the age of 5 I was bent on always being alone. What matters is that my art – my stories of happier times and better days – allowed me to dream and hope. My drawings lived in my soul as truth – in a world where human truth was sadly missing.
Time goes by without consequence, piling up on us like so many weathered days, sometimes suffocating us, other times breathing softly on our necks – with a cool breeze beckoning brighter days to come. When we can use time to learn and study and uncover the stories and songs our soul wants us to sing – we become better people. We sit up in our beds, eyes wide open, and see the world anew.
We recognize that the songs and stories of our lives are truly unique. They are only for us. They are mirrored in art – in a way that juxtapositions the boredom of all those classrooms we sat through as kids. Classrooms that sought to crush the stories and songs our souls wanted to sing. Classrooms that pretended to teach art, but really just taught us to behave and walk in a straight line. What’s artistic about that?
That is how I feel about art, now. I feel that I have finally let go of my childish musings – and learned to appreciate the truth art shares with us. I have done this by opening my soul to real art. By examining it with a tilt of the head and a concentrated stare; by realizing many of the people, like myself, whom I thought were true artists, are not. We are talented in dabbling. We are good and purposeful – but there is no mastery to our work. We do not create the soulful kind of art that withstands the consequences of time. We do not make art our lives. Not the way the people I am meeting now live their art, each and every day.
For example, a small group of performers here in Denver, called Art as Action, take the concept of bringing the human experience, our souls, if you will, to the act of performing in ways I had never before imagined nor experienced. They bring an element of beauty to their art, much the same as the beauty of practiced ballet. They share an element of excitement much the same as you see in the eyes of children who behold a magician for the first time. And they deliver an element of amazement – the kind you feel when challenged with the unknown; wrapped up in simplicity yet bursting with wonder. This group of performers – poets, dancers, musicians, artists all – stretch the boundaries of imagination with each movement, each ankle turn, each finger, toe and foot – they challenge me to try and describe their art using the sad tool of language – a form of communication that rarely conveys the truth. (Who’s truth? Yours or mine? The collective truth of mankind or the individual truth of womanhood?)
Is this my soul crying out for release – reaching out to whisper in my ear, to tickle my skin, to raise goose bumps on my arm – when this group performs? Is their grandness a part of my soul that has been dormant all these years and is only now awakening to the sound of true love, as I approach the aged years of my life? Is my love of art – of the varied and changing means of trying to appreciate the human condition – coming at last to a place of understanding, where I may embrace the soul, the sound and the story – of me?
Perhaps. There is still much to learn. I am in a place where I am able to learn! I will study with Art as Action – and work to share their messages with the world. Because the world can be such a dark, unfriendly place, can’t it? To be able to move that veil of greyness aside and reveal the colors beyond, is a priceless endeavor. A worthy endeavor. A welcomed endeavor
If you are ready to lift the veil in your life – the one hiding your soul’s need to sing – if you are ready to learn how soul, sound and story exist to make you a more complete person, join us – we have a Facebook page, a Kickstarter campaign, and soon…there will be a blog. Here is the description on their website:
Art as Action Art as Action performances are a collage of diverse art genres, backgrounds and ideas. This process impacts artists and audience members alike by presenting new and unique perspectives on prominent social issues and universal human themes. Our productions are entertaining, thought-provoking, inspiring and accessible to a wide-range of audiences. We bring together members of various art communities and allow artists the opportunity to collaborate and transcend the boundaries between art genres. The result is the continuous growth of a network of people who share a passion for art and social change.
Art as Action productions to date include our seven evening-length performances presented at The Dairy Center for the Arts, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theater and The Packing House Center for the Arts. In addition, Art as Action has brought artivism deeper into the community by donating a percentage of ticket sales and hundreds of complimentary tickets to local non-profits. We are currently partnering with Parkinson Association of the Rockies and Dance for PD® to bring dance classes for people with Parkinson’s disease to the Denver area.
It is our greatest contribution to the community to share our art and activism through collaborative performances, and the community’s greatest contribution to Art as Action is to motivate us to create and perform the very work that is inherent in our “artivist” selves.
Graphic credit: Wikipedia Unicef
About the Author
Yvonne DiVita Has Written 12 Articles For Us!
Yvonne DiVita is the author of Dick*less Marketing: Smart Marketing to Women Online, the premier book on marketing to women online. As President of Windsor Media Enterprises, LLC specializing in Publishing 3.0 using print-on-demand, as well as business blog building and social media strategy, Yvonne is an active blogger starting with her women’s blog Lip-Sticking. Her latest book, A Little Book of Big Thoughts, is offered on her blog as an e-book and a print book. In the summer of 2009, she co-founded BlogPaws, an online pet community to support pet bloggers and pet lovers. BlogPaws has successfully held two social media conferences in 2010 and is diligently working on conference #3 for August of 2011.
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There are as many reasons to create art as there are people.
As a young artist in art school, I wrote a paper trying to define “Art”. And I was skewered by my professor, because everything I did to nail down a definition came across as elitist. She gave me an A on the paper, but the lesson was there.
As children, we all draw with reckless abandon and raw creativity. We create for the joy of creation with no boundaries. As adults, many of us artists try to return to such simple purposes, but we cannot escape the burdens of time. Still, it is fun to try.
I am intrigued by the art of Art in Action, and I look forward to following your journey with them, Yvonne!