ART /ärt/ - noun: Something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings.
This modern world of ours is now beyond frenetic. We're bombarded in our first waking moments by a cacophony of noises, billboards, and radio/television commercials.
Social media algorithms are specifically designed to capture and keep our attention. Our interaction with these algorithms are rewiring the human brain to shrink our attention spans at an alarming rate. Hence, the popularity of short form content like TikTok and YouTube Shorts. So many things are competing for our valuable attention.
It's as though a massive blackhole is trying to consume our very being.
This presents a particularly tough problem for artists, writers, musicians, and all other varieties of our creative tribe. I’m a firm believer that art exists to teach, to enrich our lives, to make the person experiencing that art feel something, to allow them see completely different point of view.
The dilemma we find ourselves in now more than ever is…
How do we capture the attention of our audience?
How do we get people to stop long enough to get the message in our creative works?
Montréal, Mon Sauveur
My recent trip to Montreal gave me three full days of immersion into a culture that not only recognizes the importance of art, but values and even celebrates it. Spending time in Montreal and talking with people there set the creative side of my brain on fire. It also made me remember why the ruling classes usually come after artists and intellectuals first during times of turmoil.
Yet another example of how travel adds to our lives. The process of being taught by the art instructor to fully let myself go and create this kind of abstract work opened up new levels of creativity. It changed me in some small way. Art makes us think, creating it as well as consuming it.
Sadly, interest in long-form writing in our modern age is fading fast. Publishers will tell you differently but real world experience proves otherwise. But there’s still poetry.
All of this made me think of an ingenious technique I first saw in Brooklyn a few years ago. I wish I still had a picture but I don’t. A graffiti artist staggered the words and letters in his mural. It made me stop to decipher what it said, in doing so it made me read it with my full attention.
This gave me the idea to use this technique in my poetry. Here’s an example of the style.
I’ll be releasing a series of poems in this style soon. I believe creativity is one of humanity's super powers. It might just be the thing that saves us from ourselves.
What do you think?
Be well, live boldly, and take chances.
~Eric Vance Walton~
(Gif from Giphy.com. Photos are original.)