That creating digital collages, the occasional small drawing/painting, designing websites, cards, costumes, patterns - and DANCING, that's all art. I made over 1000 corset belts, hundreds of bras, vests, and other costume items, from hair pieces to headdresses. I definitely produced a lot of items. Definitely a lot of stuff people would define as wearable art.So I can see the truth in that argument.
But compared to now? It feels different.
In the last year, I finally managed to create my first arts-only space, separate from my dance space. Where I can paint, draw, design, craft, sew, etc - and that is all that space is for. Combined with the idea of letting go that everything I make, must somehow make money -while also acknowledging that art is a major part of my income - this is new territory.
From my earliest memories, I have always made art. There is something that happens in the art-making process that accesses and appeases a part of my brain in such a way that no activity - not even dance- can. The procedure of making art is a trial and a conflict - I am simultaneously at peace, in a wrap of silence and solitude, all the while the voices in my head discuss/argue/comment every step of the way. And it's also about the way I can be totally immersed in some unrelated activity (watching a movie, dancing, making love, creating a meal) and suddenly have a vision of something I must draw or paint. Then being able to just acknowledge whatever that vision is, sketch it, and come back to it later without questioning the how, what, or why. That I can be out somewhere, and wish I had my sketchbook with. (So I need to start bringing it with me everywhere.)
That, for me, is true art-making. I think the last few months, I have been warming up. That I have awoken the beast - the one that lay dormant, hibernating, perhaps starving a bit (or a lot), and now is ready to create, that MUST create. And the universe has seemed to have responded with a variety of open doors and windows.
Has it been waiting all this time?
