# 277: Art as Destination?
Story behind the Passage
It is stupid to talk about a “destination” because that does not reflect the life wisdom I have been blessed to gain. If you strive towards some destination, you will never get anywhere. Still, you end up in places that feel more like home than others. As you get closer to them, you note that something is happening. All of a sudden you realize that this is exactly the place where you need to be right now and that the past route has been leading you there. Even though you might have tried to run away from it for a long time or you never even saw that possibility before — it is right there in front of you.
For me, this place in life is art.
I never saw it that clearly before, it took a long time till I started writing about it, and I am still struggling with the concept itself. There is no doubt, however, that there is a feeling of arrival in this. Of course, I have always tended to overdo and overgeneralize things. What I mean is that my disinterest in and even neglect of art was very much rooted in the fact that I knew much art that I could not do anything with. It just never appealed to me. The same applies to many artists. They are still not my kind, no matter what. But the point is: There is no “they.” We are all different, including artists. Still, that takes me back to the destination issue; I finally have the feeling that the place where people like me do not feel out of place is art.
Does it even take more of an analysis?
I found the book about Rembrandt in a box in the neighborhood last year. Even people who have no idea about painting, myself included, know something about Rembrandt — even if it is just the simple fact that he was a painter who painted powerful and voluminous images. As I am getting more and more sucked up in the art world with my present book project, I felt the urge to write about a book about painting today. Somehow, painting is the stereotyptical art of the arts. Whenever people mention the term “artist,” they say “painter or singer” in the same breath. Of course, there are so many other art forms. But these two are very symbolic. It does not even take these terms. In fact, everyone is an artist. Most of us just do not know it — because we do not allow our creative energy to flow.
Good thing, Rembrandt decided to let go of all restraints.
My Learnings
“Rembrandts Werk ist so vielseitig, daß man sich fragt, was das Verbindende darin ist und welches Grundgesetz alles zusammenhält.“ / “Rembrandt’s work is so diverse that you ask yourself what the connecting element is therein, the basic law that keeps everything together.“ This sentence in the introduction struck me so much because it is the biggest pain in my story. It is not only that other people constantly keep looking for the connecting points in your work. You start doing it yourself and you transfer this impulse to your whole life. As I have come to realize by now, this in and of itself is a sign that tells you: There are artists and there are others.
What I mean is that the ability to connect all the dots as well as the ability to create diverse art which lacks the connecting dots from the perspective of others is one of the fundamental characteristcs of artists. In other words, whenever people cannot make sense of you and your work, that is an indication of art being enacted. But there is something deeper and that is the act of creation. If you feel that what you are doing comes from some place that you do not know the name of, this is, for sure, a sign of art happening. This says nothing about the actual product and its quality, of course. We all have artistic energy inside and you need a lot more for making it become seen publicly than just letting things flow. Still, the primary precondition for making this happen is one single step:
Getting rid of the search for connecting points and universal laws.
As soon as you jump into the pond of no rules and no hopes,
these laws will magically unfold their power without you longing to even name them.
Reflection Questions
1) What does “art” mean to you?
2) Do you think artists can best live among other artists? Why/not?
3) Are the “destinations” in your life that you were looking for in the past?