Your Mind, Eyes, and Heart

Creativity is bigger than you think

Blind Contour Drawing with addition marks. Sketchbook Page. Sarah Bush

The Invisibility

At the very least, it’s been extremely weird to be living in the middle of an Information Age coup attempt these past few weeks (I say “attempt” because I want to believe it’s not a done deal).

There are no tanks, no mobs roaming the streets, no blood bath—none of the usual physical world visual cues that would typically alert the populace of what is being done to them.

In fact, it looks like we’ve been Information Age boiled frogs for a while now. The slow, systematic overreach by the tech bros into our privacy and daily lives has been going on for years. This latest step of using it to speedily dismantle the administrative state is both shocking and business as usual.

More importantly, it has a certain invisibility—which is its most dangerous quality.

Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

Learning to See

As an artist, I’m keenly interested in what we are able to “see.” How things like culture and habit affect our literal vision. The connection between our thoughts and our physical eyeballs.

For instance, when you learn to render (that is, draw things and people in a “realistic” fashion vs drawing from your imagination), you have to learn to undo what your mind thinks it sees, and teach yourself to see what’s actually there. This often takes a long time because our minds are very persuasive.

But to truly see and draw what’s in front of you is an act of love because it requires a willingness to overcome the assumptions of your mind and really notice and attend to the subject of your gaze. Initially, it takes a leap of faith to do that. But once you take that leap, you realize that drawing what you truly see is an act of deep acceptance.

That paying attention in this clear-eyed way is an intimate way of loving the world.

Paying Attention Politically

While there are millions who are happy with what’s happening in our country right now, and millions who don’t even notice that anything is happening, there are also millions who ARE paying attention, who are “seeing” what’s really going on.

This is important, because for us to create the changes we need to thrive as a society, we need to be willing to see what is there, not just what we think is there.

Not just the evil and selfish intent of the broligarchy takeover, but everything that got us to this point. All the allowances for money and excess. The harshness and inhumanity of our economic structures. The deep structural inequality.

We also need to see our culture clearly. What we say we value vs what we actually value. And we need to really “see” the stories we like to tell ourselves about our civic ideals. Ideals like democracy and equality—their strengths and their fragility. The ways they’ve been weaponized and mythologized.

And then we have to love them—warts and all.

Creating the World

I think many people feel that the “Left” in this country just wants to make the nation feel shitty about itself. It’s all critique-critique-critique, bash-bash-bash. A lot of purity policing and judgment passing that feels like it’s asking for constant self-flagellation. Pass the hairshirt, it’s my turn to feel like crap.

I think there’s some truth to that. But as someone who considers herself a progressive, I don’t hate—or want you to hate—this country.

But I do want to be honest about its deep flaws…and then love it anyway. Because it’s where I live. Because I’m a part of it—the culture, the economy, and the physical land itself. I am shaped by it and I shape it. It’s mine. It’s yours. It’s ours.

And even while we can feel helpless and small about what we can personally do to stop the rollout of a tech-bro police state, in many ways, we’re also already doing it. Because each of us imagines and creates the world we live in every minute of every day. And yes, from where we’re sitting, our “creations” may seem inconsequential or feel like they have no impact, but really, we have no idea. And it’s not for us to determine or judge that.

One nice thing about being an artist is that I’m used to having to decide for myself that my creations matter—even when the dominant culture doesn’t seem to care (which is usually). In a funny way, that makes me feel more prepared for this moment. If you’re an artist, you must know what I mean.

And if you’re not, maybe it’s time to start perceiving yourself as the natural born creator that you are. Because it’s true. You knew it when you were three and busy with your crayons.

But don’t limit your ideas about your own creative possibilities by narrowing your definition of creativity to mean “being artistic.” Art is a subset of creativity. Not the other way around.

Creativity is huge and expansive and nothing less than life’s ongoing original impulse.

Which means there are infinite ways to be a creative, loving disrupter. Infinite ways to be a creative, loving connector. And what might seem like trivial but loving actions can actually create ripple effects that have their own invisible power, tech bros be damned.

The Fine Art of Mattering

You matter. I matter. The planet matters. And while we don’t know what will unfold politically, we do know that it will always forever continue to unfold—it’s doesn’t just unfold once and then stop there.

And you know, we might be living at the start of a very tough era in that unfolding. Or it might be the beginning of seismic shift.

Or the powers that be might colossally overplay their hand and experience a backlash that quickly brings things back to a more familiar center. But even if it does, returning to that more familiar center can’t really be the goal. Because, let’s face it, it’s the reason we’re in this mess in the first place.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We don’t have to have all the answers about how everything “should” be in an ideal world and we don’t need to agree on everything (or even most things) to make change for the better.

We can continue to shape ourselves and our communities. We can do what we believe is right and loving. And we can relish what we love about our normal lives and deeply appreciate what IS working well.

Think of yourself as the artist of your life and the world around you—neck deep in the process of making it. You might not know how it’s gonna turn out, but don’t be so convinced about your own lack of creativity. Or underestimate your impact on others.

As Walt Whitman said, you “contain multitudes.”

Amaze yourself.