....to see through curious creative eyes

Passionately curious is a trait I find in almost every artist.  In my classes, I often explained that anyone can be taught the techniques of drawing, painting, sculpture, etc.  What makes an artist great is the ability to “see”,  to really see an object, situation or feeling and then give it a fresh new form or interpretation.  It is curiosity that propels the desire and ability to look at how one shape influences another, where one line lies in relationship to another, or how color varies with light. It is seeing the many independent parts that make up the whole. That visual information is internalized, digested and mixed with the artist's emotions and then re-emerges as an image, a story, a dance, a piece of music… curiosity is at the root of every creation.  I have had the interesting opportunity to watch that same intensity of creative curiosity wrap around the current political climate.  Artists/creatives seem to use that same level of intense study and observation in forming their own political opinions. I know that every artist’s opinion is a product of “seeing” from many sides of the situation. When I engage in a political discussion and ask, why, there is no hesitation. Creatives know and can verbalize precisely what they have seen, and how it produces the opinions they have developed. They never try to convince me that their opinion is right, only appreciative that they can share their thoughts.  In contrast, the most politically vehement expend all of their energy by becoming louder, ruder and more belligerent, in an attempt to prove they and they alone are right. They assume loud repetitive defensive positions without the facts or even logical assumptions to support them. They deny themselves the opportunity to “see” another point of view and so the important conversations…just stop.

To my creative open minded tribe, you have my unending gratitude for sharing your unique well seen political ideas that have been carefully formed through your passionate curiosity.  You consistently open my mind and subject me to new ideas, you teach me every day! Thank you!  My hope is, the more people begin to see through curious creative eyes, the less combative this threatening political season will become.

"I Think I see the Light"  Yusuf/Cat Stevens