Living Your Art, Loving Your Life

Living Your Art

Loving Your Life

101 Reflections

on Your Gift of Artistic Talent

Alfred J. Garrotto

WLM Books

Smashwords Edition

© 2023 by Alfred J. Garrotto

All rights reserved.

Cover Image, "On Dancing Light

© 2016 by Douglas MacWilliams Lawson

Used with permission. All rights reserved

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to all the amazingly talented people in the arts, those who have achieved what most of us call success in their field and those talented people who produce great art but have not yet reached broader audiences. You are among the most important people on the face of planet Earth. Yours is the gift of creating the beautiful environs and entertainment so essential to our quality of life on planet Earth.

FOREWORD

I offer this book as my gift to you. I intend it to apply to any and all artistic gifts. It comes with my prayerful hope that each day's message will inspire and lead you to a deeper appreciation of your talent and provide needed nourishment to continue on your journey, wherever it takes you.

The design and layout of this book features 101 short reflections on your personal artistic gifts... Whatever they may be. Ideally, your greatest benefit will come not just from reading but also—and more important—from connecting what you’ve read with your day-to-day experience of applying your craft.

In writing this book, I aim to offer inspiration to engage the broad spectrum of talented writers, actors, composers, dancers, musicians, fine artists (across the broad spectrum of graphic arts), et al. Talented men and women of all ages, nationalities, and personalities offer a broad range of expressions within the collective human imagination. Within each artist's area of giftedness lies a unique vision and expression of the state of our world in the present moment... and what that world landscape may become for you in the future.

You will gain the most benefit by relating each reflection to your unique gift(s) as you spend time each day pondering these brief moments of enlightenment. How much time? That is up to you. I intend the reflection questions at the end of each day to spark helpful insights that will feed and enhance your growth as an artist. These questions invite you to internalize what you've just read. Doing so will foster greater understanding of your personally satisfying—and often mystifying—artistic gifts.

In some cases, the time you spend may last no more than a few minutes. On other days you may find yourself dwelling longer as you allow the message to sink deeper into your artistic spirit. As you ponder each question, let your mind and spirit roam freely. Give yourself permission to internalize the message, always asking yourself, What does this mean to me in my field of the arts?

In these pages I also include and salute all creative inventors and dreamers who design and produce the life enhancing products we use daily—and take for granted. You and your creative brothers and sisters there's a gifts of inventiveness and ingenuity to enhance the lives of countless people. I pay homage to you for all your contributions to the betterment of our world.

As you set out on this journey into your inmost being, I offer John O'Donoghue's inspiring words in Beauty: The Invisible Embrace—The imagination retains a passion for freedom. There are no rules for imagination. It never wants to stay trapped in the expected territories. The old maps never satisfy it. It wants to press ahead beyond the accepted frontiers and bring back reports of regions no mapmaker has yet visited.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication

Foreword

Day 1 - Art A Path To The Divine

Day 2 - What It Means To Create

Day 3- Day Language

Day 4 - Night Language

Day 5 - Day-Night Crossover

Day 6 - Art... Who And What Are You

Day 7 - Can I Call A Work-In-Progress Art?

Day 8 - Seeing In The Dark

Day 9 - The Language Of Art

Day 10 - Trust Your Imagination

Day 11 - Passion Or Curiosity

Day 12 - The Greatest Storyteller

Day 13 - Celebrate Your Art

Day 14 - Performance Fright

Day 15 - Qualifying As A Creative Artist

Day 16 - Getting Started On A Project

Day 17 - Night Language In The Hebrew Scriptures

Day 18 - The World Needs Your Art

Day 19 - Seeing In The Dark

Day 20 - Shoveling Sand

Day 21 - The Realm Of Your Gift

Day 22 - Creative Partners

Day 23 - Your Call To Create

Day 24 - The Mother Of Art

Day 25 - Imagination In Action

Day 26 - The Essence Of Imagination

Day 27 - There’s More...

Day 28 - Examples Of Night Language

Day 29 - The Miracle Of Story

Day 30 - Come, Journey With Me...

Day 31 - Meeting The Enemy

Day 32 - The Source Of Our Gifts

Day 33 - Dreaming

Day 34 - We All Dream

Day 35 - Night Language And Me

Day 36 - Bringing Dreams To Life

Day 37 - Day Dreaming

Day 38 - Juggling Art And The Need To Earn A Living

Day 39 - Creator-Spirit’s Giant Gamble

Day 40 - Passionate Commitment

Day 41 - A Career In The Arts

Day 42 - Is Unfinished Art Really Art?

Day 43 - Truth In Art

Day 44 - Creativity Can Be Hazardous

Day 45 - Tolerance For Frustration

Day 46 - Art... A Dangerous Work

Day 47 - What Creator-Spirit Expects

Day 48 - Art And Truth

Day 49 - What Is Truth?

Day 50 - Creative Ideas

Day 51 - Do Your Creations Speak The Truth?

Day 52 - A Question

Day 53 - Must You Be Worthy Of Your Gift?

Day 54 - The Guilt Of Giftedness

Day 55 - Forgive Yourself

Day 56 - Dealing With Dis-Ease

Day 57 - Neglecting Your Gift

Day 58 - What If I Abuse My Gift?

Day 59 - Pushing Frontiers

Day 60 - A Moment Of Truth

Day 61 - The Silence Of Your Art

Day 62 - Inspiration... That Epiphany Moment

Day 63 - Imagination... Diving Deeper

Day 64 - Observation... Creative Engagement

Day 65 - Preparation... The Raw Material Of Art

Day 66 - Your Desire For Excellence

Day 67 - Reaching For The Stars

Day 68 - Listening To The Prophets Of Old

Day 69 - Your Call To Humility

Day 70 - More On Channeling

Day 71 - Creator-Spirit’s Hidden Activity

Day 72 - Intentionality

Day 73 - Becoming An Intentional Artist

Day 74 - The Art Of Suffering

Day 75 - Art For The Sake Of Art

Day 76 - No End To Learning

Day 77 - Co-Laboring With Creator-Spirit

Day 78 - The Arts... Both Gift And Call

Day 79 - All Art Is Story

Day 80 - A Wannabe’s Paralysis

Day 81 - Finding Your Voice

Day 82 - Creator-Spirit’s Gift

Day 83 - Giving Yourself and Others a Lift

Day 84 - Must You Perform in the Public Arena?

Day 85 - Speaking in Tongues?

Day 86 - Remember... Celebrate... Believe

Day 87 - Remember... Celebrate... Believe Remembering

Day 88 - Remember... Celebrate... Believe Celebrating

Day 89 - Remember... Celebrate... Believe Believing

Day 90 - Can I change My Mind?

Day 91 - Striving for Better

Day 92 - Success, What Are You?

Day 93 - Art Envy

Day 94 - No God? ...Dare You Go There?

Day 95 - The Fickleness of Success

Day 96 - Creating from the Heart

Day 97 - Expectations

Day 98 - Facing Fear

Day 99 - The Artist as Reader

Day 100 - Essential Self-Affirmation

Day 101 - There’s Plenty To Go Around

About The Author

Acknowledgements

Books By Alfred J. Garrotto

DAY 1

ART A PATH TO THE DIVINE

"Art can be another path to God. Art can be another kind of food that helps people to thrive.— Jessica Mesman Griffith, Building the kingdom with pencil and paper," US Catholic article

Throughout these reflections, you will find the term Creator-Spirit referring to the divine source of all artistic gifts and creative expression. Creator speaks to the outward manifestation of your art. We call the first material expression of art... the Big Bang.

Let Spirit remind you that, in all realms of existence, you immerse yourself in an indescribable mystery. To enter these realms, you need spiritual vision beyond the capacity and function of your physical eyes to penetrate the why of the created universe and your unique place within it.

Reflect

How might I apply Jessica Mesman Griffith’s insight to my life and my work?

How challenging or inspiring is it for me to think of my art—any art—in terms of another path to God or a kind of food that helps people to thrive?

DAY 2

WHAT IT MEANS TO CREATE

"In the beginning." Genesis 1:1

Whoever wrote the first twelve chapters of the Book of Genesis as we know them in the bible today wasted no time.

All civilizations from prehistory to the present have felt the need for a creation story. This arises from a fundamental human need to explain where we came from, how we got here... and the meaning of our being here amid the ongoing human story.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, the creation story begins in the first line of the first chapter of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Immediately, we get caught up in the imagery of story and poetry to explain the otherwise unexplainable. The Hebrew biblical author(s) grappled with the growing mound of night language questions.

Some-thing from no-thing?

What might that mean in human terms? Why did Creator-Spirit, the artist and designer of the Universe, decide to create anything? And why humans? Day language—the normal speech we use to communicate with others—cannot answer these questions.

As an artist, you identify as a creative person. But what does that mean? Can you legitimately claim the title, co-creator with Creator-Spirit?

Consider this statement in an article by art critic Charles Desmarais in the San Francisco Chronicle, Waters remodels our home (April 16,