What Do You See?

Art has the capacity to communicate more than first presents itself to the eye. Such is the power available to the artist.

Devas Garden by Michael Parkes
Devas Garden – Michael Parkes

What the artist cannot control, though, is who views their work. Such is the power of you and I.

I have nothing to add to the basic creation vs. interpretation conversation. What interests me this morning is how we each both create and interpret our own daily reality.

Like a work of art, our lives unfold moment by moment under the watchful stewardship of its artist. You. Me.

How often, though, do we find ourselves evaluating our lives as finished pieces in a gallery? We draw conclusive meaning while the painting or sculpture or story is still being created.

Social markers of “success” or the lack thereof throw an interpretive lens over the still-evolving work-in-progress that are not connected to reality itself but merely the prejudged interpretation of nameless others.

We can prejudge ourselves failing when we are merely stumbling on a difficult stretch of the road. We can congratulate ourselves for outcomes that were more luck than merit and miss opportunities to learn, deepen and improve.

However we interpret the artwork, I am finding it helpful to remember that in life, we are the artists as well.

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