Down, but Far from Out
Perspectives from The Artist's Road
Being laid up the way I (John) am, currently has the benefit of lots of time just to think about art and puzzle over the brokenness in the world. Rather than retreat in despair to the solitudes of my studio as a reaction to the darkness outside, I’m choosing to agree with the late Toni Morrison’s take on times like these. In 2004, she said,
“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language.That is how civilizations heal. I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge - even wisdom. Like art.”
Wise words indeed for all of us Sensitives who can easily fall into feeling alone, hurt and abandoned by the world, isolated as many of us are who …
