Before next week’s Word-in-a-Word Wednesday, we will have celebrated Valentine’s Day.
So, in the spirit of Valentine’s, today’s word is “heart”.
The word “art” is in heart: heART.
What is the relationship of art and heart in your creative life?
Is heart a necessary ingredient in Art? Or can Art stand apart from it?
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Keitharsis is a blog on creativity, roots and the portfolio life. It is written for creative writers and artists. New essays are published each Tuesday and Thursday. Creative exercises (like this) are offered on Wednesdays.
First, as an artist, it is so easy to lose heart. Sometimes one has to remove their emotional self and just pretend they are a bystander as they read the next rejection letter...Also, it is easy to lose sight and heart of others when deadlines loom. I am so overprotective over my writing time, I shoo the kids to bed and my husband just has to find some other company.
In addition, art without soul, and caring and heart is meaningless. I know before I send some stuff to my editor that I will find it flung back into my inbox before I could count till three. It's missing heart.
Posted by: Nissi | February 08, 2012 at 12:57 AM
Art is bursting with heart. Heart gives us passion and motivation for our art, and in return, art gives us meaning. If the heart isn't an aspect of the creative process, the art will be meaningless - it won't call us to action or make us question the world or even point towards something greater. When God created the world, he had nothing but heart for His creation. Not a bad artist to emulate.
Posted by: Lizzie | February 08, 2012 at 05:33 AM
Nissi,
You raise an interesting question I've debated and want to explore in a future essay. Should our creative work draw us closer to those around us or does it compete? Obviously, it's both, which means a tension exists. And you should know by now, I'm drawn to natural tensions!
Thank you for continuing to comment. I enjoy hearing from you!
Posted by: Keith Jennings | February 08, 2012 at 08:07 AM
Lizzie,
What a beautiful comment and insight! Thank you so much for sharing this!
Posted by: Keith Jennings | February 08, 2012 at 08:08 AM
I agree with Lizzie. I don't think others will be attracted to heartless art. Heartless art is flat and lifeless. Heart-filled art jumps off the page!
Posted by: Eileen | February 08, 2012 at 08:18 AM
Our art is the overflow of our heart.
Posted by: Adrian W. | February 08, 2012 at 09:02 AM
I believe that whatever flows out of us, whether our words or our art, ultimately comes from our heart.
Posted by: Larry Carter | February 08, 2012 at 09:53 AM
My heart has always been at the centre of my art, my writing and other creative endeavours. In the past I had a hardened heart full of resentment and bitterness, the characters I drew were hardened people, people without hope, people who live in that grey area, who are that grey area we see out of the corner of our eyes as we rush about in our rainbow filled streets; the drug dealers and users, the sex workers and their clients, the children so caught in a cycle of abuse that the beginning can never be found. Those people, the headline makers for all the wrong reason that are so battered and bruised by the society they inhabit, they make their own society, live outside the "norm" where human life is not valued.
My heart was then broken, and each shard of bitterness shattered into a gazillion pieces much like how a window shatters from a tiny crack and receded into the darkness from where it came and I was made over, recreated with a softened heart. My writing now is not for shock value, the voice I am finding is much more gentle, not twee or warm fuzzied, I suppose looking at things in a more 3D way, less two-dimensional, I want to know more about my characters and motivations and I dream of leading one of my characters out of the grey into the rainbow filled streets. The tension always for me noe is not to be wishy washy, not to have everything rose coloured and beautiful, but to acknowledge the beauty that is there whilst keeping that tension, that taut thin line.
Posted by: Suzie Gallagher | February 08, 2012 at 10:09 AM
Me being a photographer fo 15 years, and now a writer, I would have to say, there is no way it's possible to have art without heart, what you make that comes out of it is the core part of who you are. It takes compassion and understanding - which brings me to the other word I saw FIRST in the word "HEART" I saw EAR.. listening to great wisdom and understanding that makes great ART. I think it needs both to be an artist - not just writing but of all nature. When I would photograph children, you really had to have a passion for the love of the art, because children are the hardest to photograph.. and you find that love for it to create beauty!
GOOD word in WEDNESDAY Keith
-Karen
Posted by: Karen | February 08, 2012 at 01:49 PM
This might be one of the more obvious thoughts, but when I practice my art of writing, I put a lot of heart into it. It's something I love to do, something I'm passionate about, something I enjoy. The art I create isn't devoid of my heart or separate from those things that give me life. They are linked.
Posted by: Jason vana | February 08, 2012 at 02:39 PM
Eileen, Adrian & Larry:
Thank you so much for your comments! I completely agree!
I will be writing about what I call "the spillover effect" in the future. And it is, essentially, what you are describing - an outpouring/overflowing of what's inside us.
Posted by: Keith Jennings | February 08, 2012 at 04:25 PM
Suzie,
What powerful comment! Personally, I think creative work with the most impact is grounded in reality, but injected with hope.
It seems obvious, that's the intersection (i.e. tension) at which you work. Incredible!
Posted by: Keith Jennings | February 08, 2012 at 04:27 PM
Thank you, Karen! I love your comment and your twist using "ear"!
And I agree that when our heart is in our art, amazing things happen.
Posted by: Keith Jennings | February 08, 2012 at 04:29 PM
Great insight, Jason! Thank you for sharing that!
Posted by: Keith Jennings | February 08, 2012 at 04:30 PM