The Fear in Art

In the past few years we have seen the world move into chaotic times with disease, riots, fear of financial loss and emotional unrest. None of us truly want this, so have we asked ourselves why this is all happening?  What is the common denominator in all of this?  May I suggest that it all stems from fear.  We live in a world full of fear and judgement.  We fear disease, we fear loss, we fear being judged, we fear those things we do not understand.  From that fear we judge so we can protect ourselves from attack. We attack the things we do not understand and fear, and hence we fear and judge even more.  What a vicious cycle this is. 

This world judges everything.  It judges people, places and things.  As an artist one of the fears that I have had to overcome in my early career was the judgement of my artwork.  Is it good enough?  Will people like it?  What will they think?  How will my work be judged?  All these fears have been blocks to my creativity.  On my Spiritual journey fear has been the biggest challenge to combat, not only for all my personal issues, but also for my art.  I have heard many artists say it takes a brave step to share your artwork.  So why did I fear this.  Let us look at the art world.  Is it judgement free?  I do not think so.  A curators or critic’s main role is to judge artwork, is it not?  And that creates an art industry based on judgement which in turn creates fear in those creative beings who want to express themselves through art.  And then fear creates barriers.  What a vicious cycle this is.

Imagine a world free of fear and judgment, what a beautiful place it would be.  So, let us not be fearful and judgemental, because that is what is creating the world around us, and do we want to live in a world full of struggle and pain?  I do not, how about you?