Lately, I have been revisiting a part of me that has been greatly dormant. The power of influence is great on a person and should never be taken lightly. My first “real” girlfriend was heavy into the arts and became an artist herself. It is the inspiration I got from my sister to begin to write and create this blog. My cousin used to draw the most realistic artworks that were ahead of his time when he was a teenager. So, I have had a strong inclination to the arts pretty much all my life. But lately, one sacrificed that time to enjoy the arts by being “an adult”.
The beauty of being the last one carrying the family gene, one doesn’t feel ashamed that I am somewhat a mama’s boy. And Mama read some of my latest posts. Like a mother, she cut through the hardened façade I had created. She spoke directly to the child she bore.
In her words, I realised that I am blessed to be in the position that I am in. Yes, it isn’t the greatest but it is surely manageable. The circumstances that I am in are within my control and therefore I can dictate whether they have full control over me or not. And so, when she spoke I realised that perhaps I need to take a step back. Or more accurately, a step within the shell being moulded by adulthood.
And in doing so, I rediscovered the arts. I use the word rediscovered because that’s how it felt when I looked at The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai again. It was a feeling I had not felt in some time.
The power of great art is that it has the power to draw you to the present. Looking at great art has the power to submerge you into the now. Works by Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, and Jean-Michel Basquiat have the distinct ability to lock you into the present moment. And, as someone who’s not an expert of art but merely enjoys great art, this makes their work great and immortal.
And the same can be translated into all art forms. Great art has the power to draw you into the now. Great art has the power to focus you on the present. And the present is indeed a present. The ghosts of yesterday hold one hostage to what ifs and if onlys. The dreams of tomorrow have a tendency to create mysterious illusions of a grander depiction of what life truly is. And in the same breath, those dreams have the tendency to become nightmares that torture the soul of what life should be.
Being in the now braces the reality of living. This is something that art can do. To explore someone's creative side is a virtue too great to lose in adulting.
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