Your Life is a Work of Art
Art, and particularly the creative process, provide immense joy in my life. It has been so for as long as I can remember. It was a struggle for me to learn how to read as a child. My younger sister Melissa could read before me. By comparison, art-making and creative play came easy—giving me confidence, a sense of accomplishment, and a way to connect with others. It eventually led to studying art and design history in college and graduate school, work in museums and with arts organizations, and serving as president of a small university grounded in the liberal arts.
Today, I draw inspiration from art of all forms—fiction and non-fiction writing, painting, dance, drawing, sculpture, design, theater and film—in the process of creating the work of art that is my life.
What does it mean to see your life as a work of art?
Your years, days, hours, and minutes are your materials, your media. You push them. You are willing to experiment, evolve and change how you work them as you enter new stages with different interests, priorities, and visions. The focus is on making and generating, rather than reacting and role-playing. It involves building connections between your interior essence—thoughts, feelings, and intuitions—and the world beyond.
As an artist, you both witness and play. There is ownership in the choices you make and recognition of the uniqueness and distinction that you alone are able to give to the world. You assemble a menagerie of family and friends to sustain and support you. It is a diverse, sometimes strange, collection of people and things that inspire and reinforce. It doesn’t always make sense in the moment.
How does it work?
First, it involves embracing and applying a creative mindset to everything in your life. That demands being curious—open to discovery, new ideas and different approaches.
It also requires being adaptable, having a willingness to adjust in the face of new challenges and opportunities.
A creative mindset calls for seeing your life as iterative, as a continual work in progress that necessitates taking calculated risks, learning what works through trial and error, and building support structures along the way.
Trusting your instincts while also drawing on experience is a critical part of the creative mindset. Think intuitive.
And finally, it entails being human centered, putting people—yourself or others—at the heart of any endeavor or interaction.
What will it get you?
• Courage to go beyond barriers and your status quo
• Freedom to see new possibilities and generate new pathways or solutions
• Expanded skill sets and awareness of what makes you unique in the world
• Greater joy in work and life
We are all artists. So, start today. Embrace your life as a work of art and see what new color, beauty, and possibility opens up for you.
If you’d like support in having your life be a work of art, set up a Discovery Call.