BE VERY YOU
EPISODE 006:
BE VERY YOU
Your first task as an artist, or whatever you choose to call yourself if the word “artist" gives you hives, is to be you. Not reluctantly, not hesitantly, and not in half-measures, though that’s how it often starts. Your first task is not to figure out what “art” means, or to have an exhibit, write a book, or get business cards that say “artist” on them. It’s to be (and to become) you. This is Episode 006 of A Beautiful Anarchy. Let’s talk about it.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
Your first task as an artist, or whatever you choose to call yourself if the word “artist" gives you hives, is to be you. Not reluctantly, not hesitantly, and not in half-measures, though that’s how it often starts. Your first task is not to figure out what “art” means, or to have an exhibit, write a book, or get business cards that say “artist” on them. It’s to be (and to become) you.
This is Episode 006 of A Beautiful Anarchy. Let’s talk about it.
Music / Intro
On the most basic level, you are all you have as an artist. By that I mean you are the one thing you have that no one else does. Others may have years of expertise in whatever craft or crafts you have chosen to to practice, but they do not have you. They don’t have your taste, your opinions, your background, your stories, or any of the other things that make you uniquely you.
“You" is not something you look for, or find, but something you own. I don’t mean you possess it, but that you accept it, without apology for the rough edges and the ways in which you don’t match the template, or how the squishy bits overflow the mold into which we are all made to feel we should fit.
The best artists in history, and by this I mean those who made art with their lives, on canvases of many different kinds, share only one thing: they were boldly themselves and no one else. Monet, Picasso, Khalo and Warhol asked no one for permission to follow their whim, their muse, their own voice.
Nor did David Bowie, Stephen Hawking, Emily Dickinson or Tony Bourdain. They were simply very focused on being exactly who they were and didn’t lose, so far as we know, a moment’s sleep on trying to be anyone else, trying on anyone else’s voice, or asking permission from others to be very, very themselves.
It is only from that place of defiant you-ness that you will change the world, even if you think your world is just you and the kids and you have no designs on changing the big picture. But if you do want to change the big picture it had better start with you. Only then do the ripples of impact fan out to touch others, in whatever measure you dream of.
What the world needs is not more polite deference, not more doing what we ought to do, or saying what we ought to say, but a million voices saying and doing precisely what Life has put in their hearts and minds and saying and doing those things at the top of our lungs and our lives.
We do not need more blending in so we all reach the grave looking as much like one another on the outside as we do on the insides, all filled with the same regrets for never having been the one person we could have been with our one beautiful short life: ourselves.
It is that one person being defiantly themselves that will change the world. These are the people I mean when I refer to a beautiful anarchy, not necessarily the ones burning tires in the streets, but the ones living life on their terms, doing what others say can’t be done, and where necessary doing what shouldn’t be done.
They’re the ones from whom we get courage, the ones that inspire change, the ones that give hope and kick at the darkness to let the light in.
They are the ones that speak the truth to power, ask the unwelcome but so-needed questions, and defend the little guy or the one born to this culture (or freshly arrived at the doorsteps of “our” countries) with the “wrong” gender or skin colour or believing the “wrong” things.
They are the ones that will say yes when the rest say no and (perhaps harder) no when the rest say yes.
You can only do that if you are being you and no one else. That is the task of the artist: not to blend in but to stand out. And from there to paint your hope, your light, your questions, even your warnings (because what were the prophets of old if not defiantly themselves, and what is this planet now if not in need of change?).
What the world needs now, as I suppose it always has, is for us to stop playing small.
We could change the world and we’re scrapping in the dirt for Instagram likes. There are people with millions of followers, more than Jesus Christ His-Own-Self had, and they’re shilling for teeth whiteners while the planet heads towards boiling, and politics everywhere slide with terrifying speed toward nationalism, fascism, and the marginalization of those that are different.
We need hope.
We need light.
We need people to play to their strengths and not to the crowd.
That is what it has always meant to be an artist. I care less about defining the word “art" than I care to speculate about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but I know it comes from people that have something to say, people with the courage to be themselves and no one else and then to implore us to do the same.
Forget trying to be an artist, forget whether or not the thing you make with your life is art or not, it doesn’t matter. Just be as profoundly, defiantly, unwaveringly you as you can. If that's not art, I don't know what is.
And before you give yourself an out on this one because you’re quote - just one person - end quote or “not really an artist” I want to remind you that everyone that ever made a bit of difference in this world was “just one person” and everyone that ever made anything, whether their art was on canvas, in the political arena, or scientific research, started out as “not really an artist” Just humans leaning into being the one thing they could do better than anyone else: themselves.
This is not a call to arms. It’s not a manifesto. It’s a reminder of the humble, but outrageous job description of the artist: to be fully ourselves. Don’t settle. Don’t shy away. Don’t flinch when you look in the mirror. Whatever other messages you hear that tell you you aren’t smart enough, not pretty enough, thin enough, strong enough, they’re wrong. You’ve got everything thing you need to be you, and from that place of being to make and to do your art.
Whatever else you do today, be very, very you.
Thank you so much for joining me. I’m David duChemin and this is A Beautiful Anarchy, the podcast for everyday creators and those that want to make art with their lives as well as their hands. You can find more at ABeautifulAnarchy.com including my book of the same name. If you enjoyed this show please subscribe and tune in every week, and if you’ve got a moment, I’d be so grateful for a review. Thanks so much, until next time go make something beautiful.
Music in this episode: Acid Jazz (Kevin Macleod) / CC BY-SA 3.0