When attending a performance or a public display of visual art, many people approach their role as a Member of the Audience with confusion and anxiety -- as if it is a Test and that to pass the Test they must solve the riddle, find the treasure, and leave with Answers.
Art is more about creating Questions than it is about finding Answers.
Creativity is our link to the Divine. We are most like God when we act like God. A work of art is a third-dimensional manifestation -- the residual, physical form that results from the creative act of the artist’s communication with the Divine.
A work of art is not necessarily a Message.
A work of art is a communication device -- it’s more like a phone number for God. It’s the strand of connection to the great web of consciousness that an artist used to have a conversation with God. It’s not like a voice-mail “Here, I called God, and this is what He told me.”
A work of art is not a puzzle you have to solve if you want to know what was said.
Art is not the voice-mail; Art is the phone.
Creative expression is an infinite variety of numbers you can use to get in touch with Spirit.
An artist is saying:
This number may work for you; it worked for me. It allowed me to have a conversation with a greater power. It allowed me to connect with, to commune with, to question a vast consciousness… Results will vary, but you are welcome to try this number to make a connection of your own and to ask your own questions. That may be as close as I can take you.
A work of material art is a shared device by which others may connect to their own divinity.
It’s like the artist is saying “Look! I found a short cut...” The physical work itself is a path, a vehicle, a vessel that can take you to Spirit; but to be delivered there, you must travel.
You must move yourself along the path. You must use the shortcut. The glorious built-in surprise bonus, of course, is that the journey itself is what you came for.
Or maybe, like me, you came for the Conversation.
image credit Eddi van W. via Creative Commons on Flickr