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Views on Art

Tonight I’m heading later into the music studio. Art and imagination are on my mind. The weather is cool and windy in Clearwater. The wind is a presence but not strong enough to be a threat to anything that would best not uproot. This wind is blowing with a feeling of freedom and pleasure.

Remembering when I was three years old…at the start of recess, standing on the back porch landing of our spacious house-school building, about 6 feet up from what I ought to use steps to descend to, and a thought came to me. The wind blew in strong gusts, yanked at my little body. My coat could be like wings. I CAN fly! The wind seemed to support me as I threw myself expectantly into the air. For a moment, I was suspended and soaring before falling and landing, gently.

Or so it seemed.  Sheer exhilaration. I had flown.

There was no plan to make flying a vocation, but when Martha, a schoolmate, became my flying apprentice a few years later (I was 7), I had myself convinced. Almost. See, by then, the physical universe, which brings us too quickly to the ground like a stern, impatient schoolmaster, had begun to teach me. I was tainted with facts. Holding a bit too insistently to the concept that I could fly, I was partly faking my creed. Though we were wild with the fun of it, I felt deceitful since Martha believed that I could teach her to fly. Who knows, perhaps I might have…but a sensible approach to living had begun to permeate my viewpoint.

I have since become either more lax or more in adherence to my philosophy, depending upon how you view things. The way I prefer to see it now, imagination may deem itself or anything to be valid, to exist, for oneself or others, without further proof, agreement or reasons to justify its flights. It’s free to the degree that we can poof stuff into being without having to explain. When one is bonded to the reference points of the objective world and adheres only to previous logicians and authorities, breaking free to fly into the vast expanses of one’s own thought may seem brash, maybe a bit rude, egotistical or irresponsible. How so? How often have we either heard and perhaps ourselves at off-times been the stern voices of stern people chanting the foolishness of “impractical” things like musing or experimenting into the unknown.

The world, if you follow its harsh lessons, warns us not to reach too far, differ too much, sing too loud, create too spontaneously. One has to slip out of that mud to live.

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Halloween and Thoughts about Change

Halloween is a real break from the other 364 days. During non-Halloween days, unless we go to a masquerade party, we’re expected to be only the person we last were, the last time we checked.

Who we are takes some daily upkeep if we are to portray well the unique message of “me.”  We maintain the character in careful detail. There’s a set of appropriate and a set of inappropriate behaviors, determined maybe by the individual, maybe by a long gone elder. It’s a good thing to look at the agreements we make. Anyway, we behave normally within narrow confines of expectation. Our behavior depends for its guidelines (and I am not putting up to question whether or not this is valid) on protocol, opinions, attitudes, schedules, locations, mannerisms, etc.

Sometimes we define our ranges of choice as per what is acceptable and within common acceptance. Like magazine subscription – I’ll take Bazaar, you’ll take Fly Fishing. It’s the material we use, be it from sheer creative thought or borrowed concepts, the material we use to create and project “me.”

The very thought of playing with this whimsically in “real” life can be unsettling. A doctor coming to work in a coconut bra and a grass skirt like in the movie musical, South Pacific. Uhhhh, Doctor? People might think you are mad. Continue reading Halloween and Thoughts about Change

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Touching Poem

Ode to a Dead Cockroach

 

Had you not entered this very moment this room

I’d not have squished you bang! with the broom

but since you did and left not, although I bid

I smashed you flat…and that was that.

 

Oh, roachie dear, little did I know

that I caused you to leave a million or so

little roaches behind without their hero.

It nearly makes me shed a salt tear-o.

 

Do I earn a pat for courage or a slap of reproach

For having killed this large and stately roach?

Ne’er knew his history, family or scope

Still the very thought of him prancing on my soap

 

Erases all pause and tender thought.

I’m glad I walked in and this roach I caught.

 

Evan Symonds

July 5, 2011

 

© 2011-2012 by Evan Symonds. All rights to this ridiculous piece reserved to silly people. Just mention my name, despite the indignity.

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Goals and Dreams, the Stuff of Life

 

by Evan Symonds

The subject of goals and dreams is at this moment a pulsatingly alive issue for me. I am pushing pedal to the floor to get my music CD completed. I will send you some songs as soon as I have a few that my producer and I have mixed (gotten volume levels right for, taken out wrong sounds like pops and crackles, all the picayune and amazing fixes that take it to sounding juuust right). I’ll share with you guys some songs as soon as I have a few ready!

The happiness that comes on as I get songs done or make distinct progress is well, far above average happiness. It’s wild exhilaration, unbridled joy. That sort of utter blow-out is something only getting closer to achieving a real, live Life Goal can bring on.

This will be my coming out of the art closet, so to speak. My family and friends have all been very aware of my music composing and singing passion, but the point for me is to make it an offering to the world at large. I’ve got to get this done to round out my life with that satisfaction and know I’ve done my best.

Part of doing this is my desire to help bring others out of their own art closets or goal closets. The world needs unadulterated joy and inspiration because, though we hear polite sounds all the time, “Hello, how are you?” “May I help you?” “How was your dining experience?” REAL love and caring is a less apparent commodity and only real love and caring do the spiritual trick of enhancing life and imbuing it.

How better to move up real caring and joy in life than by looking straight at what matters most to us individually. A goal, true-for-you, vibrant, calling-you-to-it goal. Don’t concern yourself now with if it is possible nor if it is acceptable. Not if it is or is not already done. At the stage of finding your heartfelt goal, these others don’t matter.

A goal that sets your heart pounding with purpose. What do you want to get done? What do you want to give the world?

Whatever that is, it is not necessarily yours if it comes from someone else. Might be, but that could be a real longshot. If your mother always felt you’d make a perfect sprong-maker, but making sprongs leaves you lukewarm, it ain’t it. If you husband smiles most appreciatively when you show him a perplagle you baked and he suggests that you take those perplagles to the international market — but making even raw honey perplages doesn’t make you turn into a leaping wild woman for sheer joy, it ain’t it.

I get utterly ridiculous, by any calm standards of demeanor, when I get a song done or record a mean, lean, super-moving vocal line or compose a piano piece. I cry, scream with joy, melt into goose-bumps (is that possible to melt into goose-bumps? No matter you get the idea…). I mean, it’d be embarrassing to have anyone but my closest pals and family witness me in the throes of joy of artistic creation. LOL!! But it’s a piece of real happiness.

I am no exception to the rule. We all want something bad and know that our life revolves around if it gets done. What varies, as I see it, is the particular goal, which can be anything, and the drive or insistence on achieving it and on not paying undue attention to barriers.

When one settles on something to do that ‘s personally thrilling and just right, then on the one hand, spotting and claiming that opens up vast capacity, a great emotional surge, ingenuity and all sorts of creativity.

But it isn’t all uphill. On the other hand, finding one’s goal in life can bring on a backwash, as flood in stops, barriers, excuses, delays, urges to invalidate the goal, to say it’s not worth it or maybe I am not up to doing it or simply the feeling of wanting to give up. These and more can shake the goal-seeker at the foundation.

Barriers are part of the territory. Get going on a goal and whompf, in may zoom some solid objections. In come thoughts or even real comments like: “I’m dreadfully sorry but this is just unattainable at this time by you, you especially.” As long as you recognize that those negative things that come in on one are to be expected as the challenge aspect of this, then you can view that you are just that extra bit more determined and powerful than any barriers.

My eldest daughter had a horrid art teacher. We didn’t know that she was horrid until my daughter made a phenomenally good painting. She did two actually, one of an extreme close-up of some chocolate chip cookies and another of an apple. They could’ve been badly done and the message of this story would still be the same but as it happens, in my viewpoint they were evocative works of art, not just good renderings of objects. Well, when this teacher asked the class who wanted to pursue art as a professional and up shot my daughter’s hand, this creep ridiculed her. The experience was crushing.

I did my part to try to get her to see the truth. Not the “truth” that her art was terrific, though it was, in my estimation, because the quality of art is a matter of opinion anyway — but I wasn’t wanting to settle her on that point as much as this other: that the teacher was to that extent crazy and off her own stated purpose when she detoured or discouraged someone from pursuing art. That doesn’t fall under the stated mission of art instructor, does it?

When it comes to our goals, we wear our hearts on our sleeves. I would like to suggest that we allow our hearts to radiate the glow of self-certainty and on top of that, that we throw some thick armor.

Of what is that armor made? Dogged, unshakable certainty in the validity of the effort and the chance of succeeding. Not that you (or I) are the greatest imaginable in this field but that you might be and that attaining to that (trying for it or what completely pleases you) is a good thing and…the biggie here…that no one, even with all the awe-inspiring credentials, may stop you. It’s a question of integrity.

Sometimes there seems to be an army of discouraging thought all ready to shoot down the intention to impinge on others with one’s art or one’s goodness or one’s anything. Our job is to ignore those and to push on.

The power is in us. Let’s unhinge our lives and unpry our own true goals from the sticky goo of disparagement, doubt and nay-saying. We can do what seems impossible if we decide unequivocally (no other voices, just one) to move ahead despite all and get it done.

Here is a “Hooray!” in advance of even knowing what you aim to do or have been doing, but hooray for you!

I hope you have enjoyed this article. I would love to hear from you!

Hugs to you and yours,

Evan
www.evansgarden.com
727-449-0900

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News 041 Goals & Dreams, the Stuff of Life

Goals and Dreams, the Stuff of Life

by Evan Symonds

The subject of goals and dreams is at this moment a pulsatingly alive issue for me. I am pushing pedal to the floor to get my music CD completed. I will send you some songs as soon as I have a few that my producer and I have mixed (gotten volume levels right for, taken out wrong sounds like pops and crackles, all the picayune and amazing fixes that take it to sounding juuust right). I’ll share with you guys some songs as soon as I have a few ready!

The happiness that comes on as I get songs done or make distinct progress is well, far above average happiness. It’s wild exhilaration, unbridled joy. That sort of utter blow-out is something only getting closer to achieving a real, live Life Goal can bring on.

This will be my coming out of the art closet, so to speak. My family and friends have all been very aware of my music composing and singing passion, but the point for me is to make it an offering to the world at large. I’ve got to get this done to round out my life with that satisfaction and know I’ve done my best.

Part of doing this is my desire to help bring others out of their own art closets or goal closets. The world needs unadulterated joy and inspiration because, though we hear polite sounds all the time, “Hello, how are you?” “May I help you?” “How was your dining experience?” REAL love and caring is a less apparent commodity and only real love and caring do the spiritual trick of enhancing life and imbuing it.

How better to move up real caring and joy in life than by looking straight at what matters most to us individually. A goal, true-for-you, vibrant, calling-you-to-it goal. Don’t concern yourself now with if it is possible nor if it is acceptable. Not if it is or is not already done. At the stage of finding your heartfelt goal, these others don’t matter.

A goal that sets your heart pounding with purpose. What do you want to get done? What do you want to give the world?

Whatever that is, it is not necessarily yours if it comes from someone else. Might be, but that could be a real longshot. If your mother always felt you’d make a perfect sprong-maker, but making sprongs leaves you lukewarm, it ain’t it. If you husband smiles most appreciatively when you show him a perplagle you baked and he suggests that you take those perplagles to the international market — but making even raw honey perplages doesn’t make you turn into a leaping wild woman for sheer joy, it ain’t it.

I get utterly ridiculous, by any calm standards of demeanor, when I get a song done or record a mean, lean, super-moving vocal line or compose a piano piece. I cry, scream with joy, melt into goose-bumps (is that possible to melt into goose-bumps? No matter you get the idea…). I mean, it’d be embarrassing to have anyone but my closest pals and family witness me in the throes of joy of artistic creation. LOL!! But it’s a piece of real happiness.

I am no exception to the rule. We all want something bad and know that our life revolves around if it gets done. What varies, as I see it, is the particular goal, which can be anything, and the drive or insistence on achieving it and on not paying undue attention to barriers.

When one settles on something to do that ‘s personally thrilling and just right, then on the one hand, spotting and claiming that opens up vast capacity, a great emotional surge, ingenuity and all sorts of creativity.

But it isn’t all uphill. On the other hand, finding one’s goal in life can bring on a backwash, as flood in stops, barriers, excuses, delays, urges to invalidate the goal, to say it’s not worth it or maybe I am not up to doing it or simply the feeling of wanting to give up. These and more can shake the goal-seeker at the foundation.

Barriers are part of the territory. Get going on a goal and whompf, in may zoom some solid objections. In come thoughts or even real comments like: “I’m dreadfully sorry but this is just unattainable at this time by you, you especially.” As long as you recognize that those negative things that come in on one are to be expected as the challenge aspect of this, then you can view that you are just that extra bit more determined and powerful than any barriers.

My eldest daughter had a horrid art teacher. We didn’t know that she was horrid until my daughter made a phenomenally good painting. She did two actually, one of an extreme close-up of some chocolate chip cookies and another of an apple. They could’ve been badly done and the message of this story would still be the same but as it happens, in my viewpoint they were evocative works of art, not just good renderings of objects. Well, when this teacher asked the class who wanted to pursue art as a professional and up shot my daughter’s hand, this creep ridiculed her. The experience was crushing.

I did my part to try to get her to see the truth. Not the “truth” that her art was terrific, though it was, in my estimation, because the quality of art is a matter of opinion anyway — but I wasn’t wanting to settle her on that point as much as this other: that the teacher was to that extent crazy and off her own stated purpose when she detoured or discouraged someone from pursuing art. That doesn’t fall under the stated mission of art instructor, does it?

When it comes to our goals, we wear our hearts on our sleeves. I would like to suggest that we allow our hearts to radiate the glow of self-certainty and on top of that, that we throw some thick armor.

Of what is that armor made? Dogged, unshakable certainty in the validity of the effort and the chance of succeeding. Not that you (or I) are the greatest imaginable in this field but that you might be and that attaining to that (trying for it or what completely pleases you) is a good thing and…the biggie here…that no one, even with all the awe-inspiring credentials, may stop you. It’s a question of integrity.

Sometimes there seems to be an army of discouraging thought all ready to shoot down the intention to impinge on others with one’s art or one’s goodness or one’s anything. Our job is to ignore those and to push on.

The power is in us. Let’s unhinge our lives and unpry our own true goals from the sticky goo of disparagement, doubt and nay-saying. We can do what seems impossible if we decide unequivocally (no other voices, just one) to move ahead despite all and get it done.

Here is a “Hooray!” in advance of even knowing what you aim to do or have been doing, but hooray for you!

I hope you have enjoyed this article. I would love to hear from you!

Hugs to you and yours,

Evan
www.evansgarden.com
727-449-0900