Art Colours Life
If you could express what you see and feel solely with the written word, there would be no reason to pick up a paintbrush.
No reason to grab a guitar, play the piano or blow some sax.
No need to rap, rhyme, sculpt, sketch, draw, doodle or create any form of art.
Artistry is what Wayne displayed before packed hockey arenas. What Miles shared in crowded, smoky jazz clubs. It’s uncanny how art in any form resembles what a caring and committed gardener does. Working tirelessly with bare hands. Through hours of sweat, squeezing, kneading and toil. Coaxing nature’s vibrant beauty from nourishing soil.
As the sun colours flowers, art colours life. Or as Picasso once explained:
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life”
If you are feeling our world has been a little dusty of late, perhaps it’s time to indulge your senses. Balance your time spent on spreadsheets and expenses. Embark on healthy escape and leisurely stroll. Wander through your imagination and explore art that regenerates spirit while feeding your soul.
If great art picks up where nature ends, dig a little deeper and explore how you can Make Beautiful the Frame on Leaders and Legends.
More important than any work of art is what it will sow. What counts is the seed of the artist’s inspiration. How it blooms and multiplies.
Even if it has laid dormant for decades.
In Bob’s case, he was a teenager who loved the feeling of splashing and stroking paint on a canvas, only to be discouraged by hurtful words and grim realities of a working man’s life. More than 30 years later, at the age of 47, he dared to pick up the brush once again. To colour his canvas with life’s lessons from the world of sports. An expression of expansion, contraction, power and movement, captured with a singular style. Mood and personality soaked in a flurry of realism and surrealism.
While Bob Mueller strives to define the struggle to succeed and the will to win, his real accomplishment also reflects a public victory in the face of what living legend Steven Pressfield identifies as the Resistance.
Never heard of Pressfield? Think of him as a modern-day Hemingway. Known as a writer’s writer, Pressfield is to artists what Tiger Woods is to golfers. What the late Edward Van Halen still is to guitar players. The standard by which all are measured. In his 2012 classic, The War of Art, Pressfield confronts the internal, invisible, insidious, impersonal bastard called Resistance. Allows us to see this self-sabotaging scurvy knave for what it is.
The inner whispers that stop you from sitting down to make your art.
You know this well. You have a brilliant idea but, can’t get to the starting blocks. You procrastinate, overanalyze and tie yourself in mental knots. You keep waiting for the ideal day when you can clearly see the finish line. When everything will be picture perfect. Pressfield is well acquainted with this internal battle. He has conquered Resistance many times over as he went from being homeless, living out of the back of his car to publishing his first novel, "The Legend of Bagger Vance" in 1995.
Every time you see, read or watch a remarkable work of art, you know how much effort was expended in vanquishing the Resistance. Few artists do this better than Josh Parlee of Defiant Astronaut Media. It began when he left university at the age of 19 to venture out as the owner of his own video production company. With no prior experience. No degrees. No roadmap or checklist to follow. Just a no-limits, burn the midnight oil work ethic. Tireless dedication to an evolving craft that shows through in the work.
You have a million excuses standing before you right now. Oodles of reasons not to launch that podcast, take golf lessons, garden, dance, paint, compose poetry, shoot a music video, rebrand or start a new business.
Make art anyway.
To be sure every artist like Bob and Josh was first an amateur. Born multiple generations apart, they both demonstrate postponing the work and waiting for inspiration is for amateurs. A real artist shows up, digs in and gets the job done.
No mulling and fretting over wishes and plans.
No waiting for heavens to part or bolts of lightning to strike you in the brain.
Like any dedicated gardener, the work is now in your hands.
Go ahead.
Make beautiful your frame.
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced” VINCENT VAN GOGH
p.s….In the book and subsequent movie, The Legend of Bagger Vance, the troubled protagonist (Matt Damon) is encouraged by a mysterious caddy (Will Smith) to re-discover his true, authentic swing. Pressfield used the metaphor of golf to help people slay their inner demons and make a renewed effort to bring their true gifts to the world. Watching Phil Mickelson this past Sunday with his victory for the ages at the PGA is a perfect example of how this translates to real life. Mickelson becomes to oldest player in history to win one of golf’s major tournaments, thanks in part to pure artistry with his spectacular shot out of the bunker on #5.
For Tiger Woods, you could argue the highest demonstration of his art happened on #16 at the 2005 Masters. The Great One, Wayne Gretzky flashed his artistry on frozen ponds over two decades in the NHL and while Eddie Van Halen is best known for his incendiary guitar solo ‘Eruption’, in my mind the pinnacle of his axe-wielding wizardry was achieved with the string-bending intro to ‘Mean Street’. Also from the 80’s Brooklyn songstress Cyndi Lauper showed how a girl can have fun when she combined artistic flair with an expressive form of physical ballet performed inside a squared circle. To be certain, this is an acquired taste, but Roddy Piper always found a way to elevate his craft to an art form beloved by millions.
As for the iconic Miles Davis, he started making beautiful the frame when he first picked up a trumpet at the age of 9. Considered one of the most innovative, influential, and respected figures in the history of music, here is how Cyndi inspired him to share his true colours.
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Every week someone asks a question about our videos and more specifically our media partner responsible for the storyboarding, production and editing. Headquartered in the shadows of the CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario, Defiant Astronaut Media is uniquely positioned to help business leaders re-think what's possible with this art form and how it can help build your brand. If you are curious about what's involved to get the proper gear to support your own video publishing efforts, here is a few ideas to get started. Click here: https://kit.co/defiantastronaut
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