art and life.

i am really enjoying living in the city. there is always something fun and exciting to do, and often, it's free! perfect for us kids living on a fairly small stipend. we spent this weekend going to open mic nights, street dance improv performances, latino street festivals, and other such fun things. last night, we went to this dance workshop/workout at the Y nearby, and we got to dance with slater from saved by the bell! it was sweet. :-) we also got lots of free snack food, which i'm not sure how it all related, but anyhow, it was a good adventure.

i was thinking about art and life this weekend, going to open mic night at the potter's house, a local coffee shop/bookstore/cafe. there were lots of different performers, some who were really great, some who were not in the technical sense very good musicians or poets. but it was so great that all different people, all different races and economic classes, from white middle class to someone off the street, participated in this expression of something deeper. it was really beautiful, not even the art itself so much as the act of expressing it together and witnessing each other's lives really, affirming one another, even when we aren't actually all that great at the art itself. but we're alive, and each of us possess that desire to create, the image of the Creator on us. and how great it is just to celebrate being alive together.

the improv dance on the street also made me think about how art is and should be intertwined into life. these two girls were just doing modern dance on the sidewalk, in the cross walk, on opposite sides of the street and then back together. it was actually more entertaining to watch peoples' reactions to these girls. there's the tendancy to ignore, or feel uncomfortable, or avoid art in the midst of us, free, real expression. why does it seem so weird to dance in the street? (i guess this relates to my former post.)

anyhow, this is more pondering than any conclusions. but i want to strive to appreciate art and artists regardless of their supposed "talent" level. and i want to see art and life as intertwined, see freedom to express myself and do it, regardless of what the people around me think.