I love Easter. Even as a Buddhist of over 30 years there is something about the sombreness of Good Friday and then the jubilant resurrection of Easter Sunday that gets to me.
I’m not sure exactly why. I suppose that for me, Good Friday is a recognition of the dark side of life. We all have our weaknesses. We all have things that we do badly or don’t want to face. We all have ‘stuff’ that we like to brush under the carpet, or are ashamed of, or just don’t want to deal with at the moment.
Magnificence, potential, joy and love also glow from our flawed lives. There are skills that we are good at, that we enjoy. We have areas of our life where we excel and shine, and where we light the way for others to follow.
This is the richness of life, the human condition. Within our lives is a vast range of darkness and light, joy and sadness, contradictions and paradoxes.
From all of this, art is made. We each have a unique experience of life, a story that only we can tell. We need the darkness as this makes us stronger. To create art, we frequently have to reach into that darkness, unsure of what we will pluck from it.
As artists we put more of our darkness on display. We take our vulnerabilities, make something from them and show them to people.
There are times when this takes courage. We have to get through the voice in our head that says, this is rubbish. Or why are you bothering to do this? And the fatal, who are you to do this?
We are us. We are great and we are weak. We are courageous and we are cowardly. We are masters of some skills and beginners in others.
We all have our worth. Society needs all of us, and our unique contribution. We are artists and we need to speak our truth.
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If you enjoyed this story, 3 years ago I wrote something similar that goes even further into seeing your value as an artist.
