The question floated across my screen, something I’d asked a group many years ago. I don’t remember the moment so it was a blast from the past of a former me: apparently I asked, “What if no one else has your answers?”
The timing was interesting since I am currently without answers. Well, more accurately – more honestly – I’m standing still surveying the wreckage.
I appreciated my blast from the past because now, at this point in my life-journey, were I working with a group, I’d flip the equation and ask, “What if no one else has your questions?” I’m no longer a big believer in answers.
We stopped in the long hallway leading to the contemporary art collection to admire the lens. I didn’t note the title or the name of the artist so I cannot give credit where credit is due. I’ve looked at the piece before but never with the same appreciation. Never from this moment in time. It was suddenly, intensely relevant. All points bend toward a common center. A point of view that generates circles. A single intersection.
“It’s an ego,” I thought. It believes it’s the center of everything that’s happening. It made me laugh. It brought to mind the ubiquitous lesson from Quinn: “There are six billion people on this planet and you are the only one that cares what you think.” Or feel. Or see.
No one else has your questions. No one else has your answers.
Standing before the sculpture I imagined flipping the script and reversing the circle: what would it look like to genuinely care what other people think. Or feel. Or see. With no need to understand it or change it or control it. Only care about it. About them. There’s a common center available in that paradigm, too.
Now, how do I make that lens? That’s a question worth asking, a sculpture worth making.
read Kerri’s blogpost about THE LENS
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Filed under: Awakening, Identity, Metaphor, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: Answers, artistry, care, caring, center, common center, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, ego, feel, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, lens, MAM, Milwaukee Art Museum, point of view, questions, sculpture, see, story, studio melange, the melange |
The Direction of Intention 
[…] read DAVID’S thoughts this TWO ARTISTS TUESDAY […]
Some of your rhetoric leaves me with a headache. Today’s Direction of Intention is no exception. However, we do like the bottom picture – a squirrel all alone? At least that is what our magnifying glass tells us.
The work of art displayed is almost a replica of what is going on with my right eye. Sixth nerve palsy and swelling behind it. Brenda is still having to “Drive Miss Daisy”.
We appreciate your writings, David, and pray that my comments do not leave the wrong impression. We rather think we are in contact with celebrities..
Well, gotta go, so wishing you all a very happy rest of the week!
Cris
We delight that you think we are celebrities but assure you that it’s an illusion that exists only in your head. We are happily unknown and, as Kerri says, “Not all that.” We send to you both good wishes for improved health and healing!
“Only in your head”???? Well! As Ace Ventura once commented, “Once you get inside my head, there’s no going back!”