Have to remember to take it a bit easy though as tomorrow is Arts Fest hanging day when lugging, lifting, climbing, and velcro peeling is called for. Three years in a row I broke bones inn my feet getting ready for or hanging Arts Fest. For three long years I wore a big clunky air cast boot on one foot or the other trying to heal a fracture from April to October. The last time it didn't heal despite the boot, so I give up on that strategy. Keeping my now permanently straight toe crossed with a gnarled one that no breaks happen this time! I really do love having the kids work hanging so it is all worth it. It just takes a load of physical energy that is debilitating. Non-RA peeps might get tired or sore, but this is a whole new level of misery that words just can't explain.
I have an art piece percolating in the back of my mind that I'd love to get made. It involves digital photography, collage, text, the whole sha-bang. It is large. It might not be pretty. It is about living with this freaking malady called RA. I want to make it for myself, but am not sure others would enjoy looking at it. Might be a bit graphic, ugly, uncomfortable to view. In other words, it might communicate.
It feels too self-indulgent to create art about personal problems -- I mean, doesn't everyone have them? What happened to keeping the stiff upper lip and just dealing with life? When I think if the problems previous generations have experienced and that other people are living with now, mine seem so insignificant. Yet, the physical package I live with controls almost every waking moment of my mind in one way or another, and that might be worth exploring.
The big question that I deal with is this: does examining and reflecting on personal challenges make them bigger? Or easier to carry and accept? Denial works to a certain degree, but at the end of the day, reality exists to limit movement, peace, accomplishment, and mental energy. If art is about capturing the experiences of being human, than what I might make is part of that wide spectrum (be it negative or positive.)
Like other artists I admire, sometimes it might be best to let other people do the judging, and just keep on creating. Here is an abstract of a study examining the impact RA had on two well known painters. I find it weird that I find out some of my favorite artists had RA too (Rubens, Dufy, Klee, the list goes on.) It is interesting to see the attitude difference -- Renoir focused on beauty, Jawlensky turned more to his internal struggle. Both are valid strategies for living with RA. Not sure which way my art will go, but as long as I create honestly, it will be ok.
What will you make today? Enjoy a spring-like day!