To be honest, I kept forgetting, but when I remembered, it was a pretty useful mantra. As I said, it got me out of bed as soon as I woke up, no waiting for the alarm or the snooze. Just, “my life is a work of art, wake the fuck up.”
While Shelly was at a meeting with a lawyer in Nis, it helped me be a bit more adventurous, trespassing into places that looked cool. I’d feel a little fear, and think “Fuck it, my life is a work of art,” and in I went.
In short, it helped me objectify and aestheticize my life. Objectify in that it helped me peel back, abstract myself from my own life, make me an actor under my direction. And Aestheticize in terms of framing, and noticing. My field of vision became a movie screen; while I was showering I noticed just how bright orange the shampoo bottle was against the white tiles.
But, as I said, I kept forgetting, and even when I remembered I was only partly invested. Like when meditating, or distracting myself when necessary : part of me was lifting off but the rest was nattering on as usual, worrying, planning, etc. Frankly I didn’t have the guts or the focus to immerse myself 100%. Maybe with another person, or in someplace I am totally comfortable.
At times I felt sort of like that camaraderie you get when tripping with someone, I thought to myself “In an hour or so, Nathaniel will wake up and his life will be a work of art too.”
Well, a friend is coming over and we are going to go for a bike ride shortly. I can make my life a work of art and not tell him, and see what that changes. Though I’ve found it is harder to slip into now that it is not official…
2 Comments
Nathaniel’s day of life as a work of art is blogged here. The song he mentions is here.
Hmmm. What if Art was a work of life? Then artists wouldn’t be needed anymore because life itself would pop out a work of art here and there, eventually. This is a scary thought for me(not the lack of artists, but the lack of choice I see in there). There was a professor in my art school that decided to quit doing his drawings and start being a living drawing which subsequently lead him into deep alcoholism and he has often been seen regulating traffic naked in some of the larger squares of Belgrade. I think that’s what has been annoying the two of you, the fact that life is everything but Art, it’s a point of view, and not the view itself. Or it’s me crapping? Cheers guys. Still would be fun to see peoples lives framed, not just their pics.