Not Here to Sell Art
Not here to sell art, I’m here to change your mind. And how your body moves. And what fills your head every day. And what credit you use your time on.
In Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience, he proclaims that by voting you’re only voicing your opinion, which is necessary, but much more is needed to enact change towards what you see as just. Active participation is required to disrupt and rewire the veins that pulse our society.
Art is here to advocate for equal stake in our world building.
I was a bitter child. Greatly disappointed by what injustices people endured. What is the point? And are we really living? Are we just suppose to let it all happen to us?
What a waste of life.
What? We’re all supposed to live like this? New life is meant to evolve society, not retrograde it. We’re living in the tech boom era, yet our thinking is so outdated. Our fears are outdated. Even our desires.
We need a breakthrough.
We need a transcendence.
We need an arousal.
To save us and the natural world we inhabit.
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Our environmental downfall has been the work of the de-spiritualization of our country. Our de-connect to the land and in turn, our de-connection to ourselves.
If we don’t know our true nature, how can we care for others and our planet?
There’s a realm where life is sensual. It’s participatory in creation. It allows for ease. It welcomes diversity. It sounds the wisdom from out temples and our hips.
How I see beauty in the sublime used to feel like a solitary experience, but now it is something I share with many and continue to advocate for because it not only connects us to the womb of the Earth, but brings us the most peace.
Do you understand where we’re headed? I’m not saying a utopia is any better than control and plain bagels. I’m asking us to co-pick-up-the-rubble. To weave our life with the land, not on top of it. To weave our beautiful cultures and art in a co-existence that thrives on diverse colors.
Our bodies don’t function with one single system. It’s more complex. The reason we’re alive is a product of two different things becoming something new. This is health in its simplest form. This is art in its essence. This is the simplest form of creation.
Without unity there’s no creation. Diversity in unity is necessary for existence.
Nothing actually ceases existence if it feeds what grows into something new. Death is a myth. We’re destined for progress.
For the Baha’i Faith, “…assisting in endeavours to conserve the environment in ways which blend with the rhythm of life of our community*.” is an integral part of our community-building processes.
Who would you like to be? How would you like to exist? Let yourself pursue everything you hope for, so that in years further, your legacies will can live closer to that truth.
I am firm in my belief that a spiritual revolution is required to enact a more beautiful existence. Art is advocacy. Art provokes. Art transforms. Art connects. Art will heal us and our home.
* 1989 Ridvan Message to the Baha’is of the World, Universal House of Justice
Truly,
Mel
