Hasn't been
tough to find something to talk about around Creatavita, as
friends have been dropping in to talk about their lives. Lives full
of events, decisions and good ol' honest-to-god emotion. For
many, too much emotion. Frustration as an artistic project gets
delayed again. Grief when a family member dies suddenly. Sadness as
a human body ages. Anxiety as life presents too much change. So
grab yourself a cold drink because the time has come to talk about
EMOTION
As a
creative person, I have found the response to this abundance of
emotion fascinating. You see, emotion is an artist's basic
commodity. Farmers grow food, manufacturers make products, bankers
provide a safe place for our money (don't go there; that's what they
are supposed to do) and artists, in all of their spectacular forms,
express human emotion. Here - Victor Hugo said it well,
specifically about music: “Music
expresses that which can not be said and on which it is impossible to
be silent”. As a musician, I think it was nice of Monsieur Hugo
to direct our attention to music, but I'm generous enough to say we
can expand that to all art forms.
I
know this idea was presented to me many times throughout my education
and training, but I currently credit opera director Bernard
Uzan
with providing the lightening-bolt moment for me. You know what I
mean – that moment when a big question is finally answered and the
pieces fall into place. That was the moment when I realized I wasn't
crazy, that my emotions made me the artist that I was (and continue
to become), and that there was tremendous value for the world in
having people who are willing to turn this emotional activity into
their life's work.
But here's
the rub. If emotion is our commodity, this means those of us who
call ourselves artists must become comfortable with experiencing all
human emotions. The entire spectrum from bliss straight through
normal all the way to lunacy. We must know all of these emotions
well, like the back of our hand. We must know what they bring up in
us, how they make us behave, how they affect our interactions with
the world. We must be bold and courageous; we cannot be afraid of
them. If we are afraid of experiencing our emotions, what about
those poor schlubs who look to us for guidance? Yes, I'm talking
about our audience, our readers, our viewers. They look to us to
express the feelings they themselves didn't even know they were
feeling, those feelings that had previously gone unexpressed. And
you certainly know that they look
to us to express the difficult feelings, don't you?
So
back to the emotion flying around Creatavita this
week. Here's an encounter I found truly fascinating. One
person said to me, “I'm letting my emotions get the better of me.”
My response? “Of course you are, you're a human. That's what
humans do.” When did we decide that NOT feeling was an appropriate
human response? Trust me, I've tried that road. It was not
successful in many ways. I only ended up seriously depressed. I
don't recommend it.
This leads
me to another fascinating experience I have frequently in my studio
and in my work as a faculty member at Walnut St. Theatre School. A student will allow themselves to let go of the armor and
find themselves in tears. The student then apologizes for
crying. Really? Why would you apologize for feeling,
particularly since you are engaging in an art form which requires you
to, excuse me, express your feelings?
You can
call me strange, but this is the
moment when I encourage people to cry. Yes, I do. I hand them a
Kleenax. I put my hand on their shoulder and I encourage them to be
right where they are. You know what happens. I'll tell you anyway.
99.9999% of the time the emotion clears within minutes, the singer
ends up in a better emotional place as well as feeling more confident
in their ability to express themselves. The room is lighter.
Just so you
all don't think I'm standing up here on my soap box all sassy-like,
knowing every thing there is to know about emotions, I will confess a
truth to you. I cannot sing the song “Anatevka” from Fiddler
On The Roof without
crying. If you don't know it, here it is:
Like Pavlov's dog, I start to tear up as soon as I hear the opening
words. Yet I still sing this song, I don't avoid it. Why? Because
singing this song reminds me of an emotion deep inside of myself.
Something I am unable to express in any other way comes out of me.
So
if you're dealing with emotion in your life or in your art, here's
what I do and here's what I encourage you, no matter what your level
of artistic ability, to do: Take out a blank piece of paper, grab
your kid's crayons, open that sketch book, sit with your violin or at
your piano, pull out that monologue that has been calling to you.
Dive in. Sing, read, paint, write. Let the emotions flow. Don't
judge yourself for having those emotions. Feel. Create until you
can go no further (or until your 10 Minutes is up). Then leave
it alone. If you feel you haven't grasped the emotion fully, repeat
the experience when you can. The product does not matter, the
experience matters. You might create ca-ca, you might create
okayness or you might create the next Mona Lisa. Doesn't matter.
Do
you know what you are doing? You are exercising your emotions, just
like you exercise your muscles. As you allow yourself to exercise
your emotions, a wider spectrum of your emotions will become familiar
to you. The scary ones will lose their edge. They'll still be
there, but you'll be able walk into that fire and right back out,
with hardly a singed hair to show for your efforts.
I've
gone on long enough today. If you've got 4 more minutes to spare,
take a look at this video of "Emotion" by the Bee Gees and Samantha Song. I found it refreshing. Hope you
will too.