Week Three (167 lbs)

On Community (lets start the conversation)

     Most of us in the Arts, as we mature, start to understand the importance of community. The question often comes up, how can we build community?

     To commune, to share, and in some ways to be an artist means to live in public. By "living in public" I mean the actual showing / sharing of our images, the sharing our ideas and dreams as well as being seen in public.
     Artists in many ways are the mystic flames that attract the moths of our culture, or society. We don't give understanding or definition to life, we just express another point of view of life. Humans are curious by nature and are attracted to this viewing or experience of a different point of view. We are sometimes our own moths just as much as everyone elses...
     In return for our sharing we gain the benefits of community. These benefits can be simply understanding, support, criticism, further sharing, sometimes rejection and if we are lucky a monetary return. This is the community, we as artist often crave. To achieve this we need to be living in public and create our light! Community is out reaching and sharing, not privacy and isolation. So maybe one of the hardest things for an artist to get over is their insistent need for privacy. Without the community aspect, art nor artist would survive and theoretically without art the community may not thrive. It is a two way street. 

The artist owes it to his or her art to build and be a part of community; to share, to commune and live in the public. There is no greater legacy than an open minded community founded on art.