The work of art
A convo with myself
“Can you separate your work from yourself?”
As I was pondering on whether I could separate my work from my life, my values, and my ideas, I randomly opened a page of The Creative Act: A Way of Being. The book gives me a lot of security.
We are attracted to the shared experience within the work. Including the imperfection in it.
I don’t need to worry about my performance. It’s okay to be imperfect.
Your self-expression allows the audience to have their own self-expression. If your work speaks to them, it is of no consequence if you are heard and understood.
The author is dead anyway. I deeply recognize that people are essentially different. There isn’t any way to control their viewpoint and judgment. Their praise. Their critiques. Their disagreement. Their mock. Whatever others say, it’s out of my hand.
Great art is created through freedom of self-expression and received with freedom of individual interpretation.
I don’t want to constrain how other people think either. Even though it seems to be a declaration of myself, my values, and my ideas, a world will be like 1984 if we can only believe and interpret in one way. Yes, freedom makes everything messy and unpredictable, but isn’t that the essence of life?
Great art opens a conversation rather than closing it. And often this conversation is started by accident.
All the comments and conversations start by an accidental pick-up by algorithm. Retrospectively, I guess my point of view presents an alternative possibility in life. That’s why it opens a conversation for people to agree, disagree, or merely just rethink how we are shaped by society, and do we want to accept that shape it provides. I don’t think I blindly disagree with social values, but I do not see a reason to accept them without asking “Wait, but why?” either. My writing will probably continue to open lots of conversation, where I will receive both positive and negative feedback.
The constant march into the unknown would not exist without the simultaneous sharing of millions of divergent points of view.
This spoke to the core of my fear. I’m already marching and exploring a lot of unknowns and why people need to question me. I feel that I can’t even stand firmly on the ground while I need to defend myself for the way I’m being. Yet, without all the points of views that I and others’ are creating, there will not be any unknown to start with. My view is one divergent point of view, and so are others. All those divergences are what make the world beautiful. Maybe someone who is reading this post is already disagreeing. But I don’t need to defend my view. I can keep standing on my ground, but not feeling the need to convince others.
Do I separate my work from myself now? Maybe not, but I put aside all the comments for now, and continued doing my work, creating, and writing, humbly.