Last weekend, I spent a few days back again wandering through art. Viewing art is probably one of my favorite ways to meditate, but it’s also one of the best ways to conduct research and observe the ever changing creative world.

The more I participate in my life long ethnography of art, the more I find the definition of art expanding and the more I want to encourage a practice of creation accessible to everyone that is willing to just take a moment to contemplate.

But I know many people that are afraid to just begin. So I paint this postcard to them today. Definitely inspired by Keith and all the uncles in my life that died too soon because of AIDS. The cumulative history of all my childhood heroes and how they’ve inspired me and my closest friends to be artists fuels me. For so many years it was overwhelming to think about the 80s and the consequences of being young when so many bright souls just perished. It is still difficult to express. All of my teachers died too soon. But their legacy has always been this insatiable discipline to create and experiment, and to embrace this in private, because what is truly the value of market success if it changes your motivation to make the work you believe in?

Sometimes the process is just sitting down and writing a few words on paper, or singing aloud a phrase in your head, walking down the block and searching for a color, closing one’s eyes and visualizing sensation. All of these acts are artful. And all of these moments fill me up with sensation.

The older I get, the more I want to share ways to get more into the mindset of living as an artist because I do believe art can save your life. So I think I’m going to start right talking about it more.

Xo

Carly