MANIFESTO - Life as Art-Art as Purpose

As long as I can remember I have had a social conscience. When I was about five and feeding bread to the pigeons with my mother, a little boy smaller than I, and dirty, approached me for the bread because he was hungry. This I did not understand; this confused me. Later, when I was in high school, watching the Vietnam war on TV, in “dying color,” this I did not understand either; this confused me. I went to university to study political science - to try to find solutions to our social problems, I became frustrated with the mainstream approach to social change, however, and I dropped out of college to become a potter. I felt that through my pottery I would be able to create positive energy and that by bringing objects of beauty into the world, objects that exuded their own special feeling, I would be able to have an impact on people for good.

While doing my pottery I became involved with a group that was working in community cultural and economic development. We were attempting to establish ongoing art and trade centers that would provide retail, work and performance space for artists and craftspeople and which would generate income to finance job training and other self-help programs. Everyone thought that our ideas were great, but no-one would help us unless we paid them. Being a grass roots organization, however, money was not one of our greatest assets. My association with this group was a very good learning and maturing experience and it got me back to school to gather my own bag of tools - I now have an MBA in finance and I'm a licensed attorney.

Although I have been away from the pottery for quite a few years now, my heart is still with the arts, and my purpose in life is still centered on working towards creating a better world. For me, art plays an important role in the transformation process. For me, art represents the heart energies of beauty, love and healing. Art represents everything that is positive and good in life, Art is a mirror which shows us who we are; art creates a vision which shows us who we can be; and, as vision, art acts as a bridge which we cross over in recreating our world. How can this be?

Why Are We Here?

As I reflect upon life, I ask what is our purpose here? What, beyond mere survival, are we put upon this earth to accomplish? Life is a tabula rasa upon which we place our imprints. We can create skyscrapers and moonwalks, wars and ecological disasters or we can create peace and well-being for all. It is up to each one of us to decide how to live, to decide what to do with our unlimited potential for creativity and invention. This is our choice.

One does not need to look far to understand the meaning of a flower or a butterfly. These celebrate life, sanctify life and give praise to life through the direct expression of beauty - life as art. Are we really so different from the flower and the butterfly? We are the direct expression of life force energy and we are given the intelligence to live creatively, to honor and sanctify life by reflecting in all that we do, the beauty that we are given in all that we are. This is our choice.

So now I am back where I started, I have returned to the art world, to pursue my dream of adding to the positive energy of the planet and of helping to make this world a better place for all of us. Art can help do this; art can show us the way.

PL