Last night one of my most favorite Doctor Who episodes came on, Vincent.
The transformative power of pain, and suffering expressed through Art, through his eyes to canvas.
He is to this day one of the most relevant Expressionism artists our time has ever known, and one of the most tragic.
Whether you're a painter, dancer, photographer, singer, instrumentalist, teacher, graphic artist, architect, or anyone who creates anything this is for you.
For every time that you pour your heart onto the canvas, your medium isn't always the paint, or the voice, or the pen, or the click... it's the beating of your heart, the pain of your past, the disregard for your talents, the misunderstood, the anger, the fist.
In this particular episode, the novel idea that a time traveler 'The Doctor' could give Vincent Van Gogh a glimpse of his celebrated art, years and years later is touching and gives Vincent a perspective of his prolific talents. That may be something we never experience, and if we did, would it redefine why we do what we do?
Why are you doing it?
What if you never received another commission for your work?
How many singers and entertainers have walked through the revolving door of the entertainment business to never be relevant to their field of work? Thousands.
It's a hard place in this world to remain "Relevant", that's why we scratch our heads when we see performers disembowel their dignity for twerking and crying kittens, because it is getting increasingly difficult to be "Relevant" when we continually throw out the baby with the bath water in the world of Art and Entertainment.
More than that, can we transcend our consumer mindset to be able to restore talent into the things that once again reach us in the darkest places where someone can transform pain and suffering into something beautiful?
Would we ever try if no one ever noticed?
Increasingly, I believe we are quitting on ourselves.
It always sounds like a great notion, "Dance like no one is watching," but I'm afraid that we've stopped dancing because no one is watching.
If you're an artist, a poet, a teacher, a dreamer, a singer, an iPhone photographer, a Tumblr, ... forget about the "Like" button today.
Go create something for you.
Whatever stirs your passion, makes you want to sing in the shower, gives you goose bumps, reminds you of the smell of dust after it rains, Go!! Create!! Do It!!
Life isn't Show and Tell, it's GO and DO.
And, if you don't know where to start... start with your dirty car and take your finger and in that annoying sticky film on your window, draw a heart.
Just Begin.
Start Again. Start Again. Start Again.
And Again.
Use your pain, use your joy, use your sorrow, use your life.
You may touch lives today, or ten hundred years from now.
That's why it's relevant.
It's not just a piece of Art, it's a piece of YOU and that becomes timeless.
That, is Relevant.
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