ART = INTERACTION. . .

Gentle reader, if you have been following my postings this past 4+years you might remember that my son, Nathan, is a ceramic artist.  On the morning of the 24^th of December the usual suspects gathered together and Nathan gifted each of us with one of his creations.  A number of us knew that Nathan was called to be an artist when he was six years old.  ‘An Artist.’  How many of us, when we consider who an ‘Artists is refer to a person that interacts with stones, or canvas, or oil or words on paper or clay?

These artists are artists long before their creations impact the viewer, resulting in an interaction.  The interaction results in change happening.  The most powerful and the most visceral art is direct and interactive.  One-to-One.  Person-to-Person.  The Artist and the Recipient.  Anyone who has experienced this knows of what I speak.  A written or verbal description will not provide the experience; ‘words on the page or words spoken’ cannot engender the experience (unless of course you are Shakespeare).

On the other hand, if we are awake and aware and if we are also intentional and purpose-full most of us can experience the artist and his/her art in ‘real time.’  There is an art to facilitating a meeting, to counseling or consoling a child, to conducting an interview, to serving a cup of coffee, to calming the angry customer, to healing the wounded, to forgiving the trespasser.

Last week I was sitting in my favorite coffee-bakery shop and I watched an artist at work.  A mother had entered with a brood of children following her.  One quickly became upset – she was whelmed over with all of the choices she now had.  This ‘Mother-Artist’ deftly responded to the child’s concern and at the same time she helped keep the others in her brood focused and ‘on task.’  This ‘Mother-Artist’s’ calmness was infectious.  I found myself becoming calmer as I watched her ‘create.’

‘ART’ is an interactive human experience/connection that results in a human being shifting, changing, transforming or evolving.  Any person who is able to engender one or more of these responses in another is an ‘Artist.’  Most of us have experienced ‘Art’ in this way; many of us, I think, have also been the ‘Artist.’  I also believe that each human being is potentially an ‘Artist.’

 What if each of us were truly great at it? 

Here is a piece of art that my Son, Nathan, was commissioned to do for a restaurant ‘The Pillar at Tapastrie.’