This issue is dedicated with love and gratitude to the memory of Irish poet, philosopher, activist and writer, John O'Donohue, who died peacefully in his sleep on January 3, 2008.

For information on John’s life and work, please see www.jodonohue.com

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I hope this issue finds you enjoying the beauty and calm of winter, the world shimmering with possibility for the new year!  I love January because I love beginnings and the way they invite our imagination, our creative courage, and the healthy expectation of good!  I have long wanted to write a series of articles on the theme of approaching life and work as art, and it occurred to me, what better time to write the introduction to “Life as Art” than when facing the blank page, the open canvas, the tilled garden space of a brand new year? 

I had already begun writing this article when I received news of the unexpected passing of John O’Donohue, a person I have long considered one of my greatest living mentors.  It has been my long time dream to travel to Ireland and take part in one of his intensive workshops.  It never occurred to me that the opportunity to meet and learn from him in person was a time-limited offer.  Beyond the sorrow that I share with thousands of his devoted readers and listeners, his passing reawakened in me the importance of not putting off until tomorrow what is calling to us to be and do today.  Knowing that we will die, and that the time of our passing is unknown to us, how do we live in the light of the burning questions: Who am I?  How do I wish to live? What am I here to give the world?   It is in that rich, fertile space between “who we are” and “what we can be” that the artist within us is called to awaken and make it self known in the crafting of our lives, be it on the canvas of a day, a year, or a lifetime. 

To bring the sensibilities of an artist to our everyday life is an aim worthy of our humanity, summoning us to own and honor the freedoms and powers we’ve been given to continually create ourselves and our world!  By approaching life itself as the great creative challenge, through the medium of whatever it is that we do on a daily basis, we live in accord with this beautiful assertion from Henry Miller: “To be a poet of life, though artists seldom realize it, is the summon.  To breathe out more than one breathes in.”  In that spirit, I offer the following insights in the hope that we may ignite our creative gifts, fanning them into a blazing fire that will warm and brighten the living of our days, inspiring us to express the authentic beauty that is ours alone to give.    

1.  We need to broaden our definition of art!

The term “art” typically invokes images of artistic geniuses who have earned critical acclaim whether as painters, writers, musicians, dancers or movie directors.  We use the term “artist” guardedly, as if it should only be applied to those unique and unusual individuals who have extraordinary gifts.  But what about the rest of us with our more modest capacities and talents – can we presume to call ourselves “artists”, knowing that our humble creations may never hold a candle to that which we would consider “real art”? The answer to that questions depends on whether our definition of art is based on “comparing” rather than that of  “creating”. 

When a telephone operator sings her greeting as she answers the phone, or the chef adds just the right ingredient to a soup she is conjuring up from leftovers, is that not art?  How about the manager who leaves a “happy anniversary” note on the desk of the employee who has survived her first month of employment, or the babysitter who chooses a favorite book from her shelf to read to the children in her care?  When the masseuse applies pressure on the right point in the shoulder, the teacher finds a way to calm the child in a tantrum, or the housekeeper folds the facecloth into a dove for the next guest, is that any less an act of art or creation than the painter’s stroke, the writer’s choice of words, the sculptor’s shaping of the clay, or the actor’s rendering of a monologue?

What these examples have in common is the way in which regular people found a way to add their own style or signature to their everyday tasks.   For my purposes here, these are examples of “art” as defined by Joseph Campbell who once said:  “All art, throughout history and throughout world cultures, has been about this: the authentic expression of a person in some domain of his or her life.”  From this perspective, an artist is not a special or unique kind of individual, but every person is capable of being an original kind of artist.

2.  Art is more of an attitude or than it is a product. 

Leonardo da Vinci asserted, “Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art."  It’s not the nature of an activity that makes it art; its how we approach that activity. Pouring spirit and creativity into the most mundane of tasks can transform it into art.  From this broader definition, the path of the artist is available to us all every day, in every domain of our lives.  From making the bed, setting the table, holding a meeting, putting flowers in the vase, responding to email, writing a cover letter, calling customer, shoveling the driveway, making stew, and telling bedtime stories at the end of the day – what possible domain of our lives would not be enhanced by the conscious choice to use it as a vehicle for our authentic expression?   

Clearly, the manner in which we approach our work is highly revealing and often immediately evident in the results we produce…whether it is a garden, a meal, or advertising brochure.    We can sense care, passion, or attention in a piece of work, just as we can perceive sloppiness, disregard, or arrogance.  We see our states of mind and feeling, our limitations as well as our gifts, reflected in our work, whether we care to admit it or not.  We notice the difference between the package that is lovingly wrapped and the one that is thrown together with paper and tape.  We sense the difference in the message that is crafted with care and attention, and the one that is scribbled quickly and carelessly.  If we considered our everyday tasks and activities as art, wouldn’t we approach them with more care, attention and creativity?   

3. Creativity is our birthright! 

Creativity is a way of life, and as such, artistic expression is the province of every human being.  Creativity is one of the gifts that most distinguishes us from other creatures on the planet. Animals surely create wonderful masterpiece of their own – intricate nests, elaborate dams, spectacular webs – but notice, their creations are both enabled and limited by their instinctual programming.  They can’t think and act beyond their animal-ness, their rabbit, robin, or raccoon-ness restricts their ability to create, express and communicate with the rest of creation, confining them to their biological and geographic place in the universal order.  As human beings, we have no such restrictions. We are ridiculously unlimited – absurdly free and unbounded - in the infinite ways in which we can choose to create, express and communicate with the world around us.  

From the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the houses we live in, to the ways in which we style our hair, express our emotions, and interact with one another, we are forever parading and exercising our creative freedoms.   We, in fact, create the content of our own lives, and then creates stories to explain them.  We sing songs, paint pictures, tell jokes, and craft poems to further make sense of our experience.  In our creating, we ask questions, pose answers, make hypotheses, offer viewpoints, argue beliefs, and celebrate our shared humanity.  We are forever naming the contents of our territory, attempting to describe and share the particulars of our journey – making us all philosophers and poets of a sort.  On a macro level, we create cultures, political systems, economies and religious practices, new ways of being and living on the earth.  Such incredible, godlike powers were not dispersed to just a few geniuses and people of extraordinary gifts, but to all of us! 

4.  Even a day calls upon our creative potential

What we often forget is that every day is a creation – not only for us, but by us.  We wake up to it, step into it, and take our part in creating it by what we think and say and do.  We don’t regard our daily activities as “creation” or ”being creative”, it’s just what we do, it’s just life.  However, viewing our ordinary activities as part of our creative lives, infuses them with a different kind of power and energy.  If we realize the extent to which we create our reality, then we have a new relationship to it, and we can take more control of our lives.  We can alter our days and refine them as we would a work of art, like adding more color to a painting, or adding more characters to a story, singing a song in a new key; doing a dance with a different rhythm.  We fail to use our creative powers when we approach life as if it were simply a matter of routine and happenstance.  Ironically, by default, we are still taking part in the creation of this less inspiring version of life. 

5.  The need for authentic expression is an inner imperative.

I believe that the impulse to use our gifts and express ourselves authentically is as natural to the human being as the impulse to blossom is in the flower.  The fledgling composer composes, the fledgling writer writes, and the fledging painter paints from an inner imperative.  Regardless of the content or medium of our creative efforts, we strive to find what is our own, to express what we know to be true, and to infuse our most deeply felt concerns, and values into the work itself.  Our authentic expression, like our creativity, is organic and grows out of our unique individuality and life experiences.  We have earned it simply by virtue of our identity and being, the challenge is finding ways to channel and express it!

We often seek it from outward sources.  We read the latest book on personal growth and spirituality, take workshops on various forms of inner development, follow the newest trends or the wisdom of a favorite teacher.  All of this fine and good, as long as we never forget that the treasure we seek is always within, waiting to be unearthed.  That’s where the creative process comes in, because far from being about making objects, creative expression involves the ongoing discovery of ourselves and finding ways to tell our story, share our wisdom, our sorrows and our joys with the world around us. 

One of my favorite writers on creativity, Julia Cameron, writes in her book, The Artist’s Way: “We each have to learn how to sum up our experience in images that convey our personal truth.  Creativity helps us to do that.  I do it by writing books on subjects that I wrestle with personally.  Many people write songs, poems, and stories.  Some, less obviously, make gardens or pies.”  I think the ways in which we convey our authentic expression change as we grow and age, and as such, the vehicles in which we have poured our creativity throughout our lives can represent a lovely autobiography of our lives.

6.  Approaching life as art summons a vital blend of qualities and skills! 

In thinking about the relationship between an artist and his/her craft, it occurred to me that any activity approached as art would benefit from the unique perspective and sensibilities that the artist brings to bear in the creative process.  Implicit in the concept of applying one’s craft is the blending of the following skills, intentions and qualities:  

• Desire to express what one sees and knows into a form that can be shared with others;
   

• Willingness to look at things in a new way, transcending traditional ideas and forms in order to create new ones;
   

• Critical discernment in choosing what and how to create;
   

• Humility to remain open to gifts of the muse; balance between confidence and questioning;
   

• Dedication to the mastery of the medium;
   

• Balance between initiative and receptivity;
   

• Balance between spontaneity and playfulness and deep concentration;
   

• Appreciation of the benefits of sustained effort over the long term, knowing that a painting, a manuscript, or song lyrics cannot be forced;
   

• A disciplined approach to completion and follow-through;
   

• The process of revision and the ability to edit and refine one’s work;
   

• A quest for excellence.  

I am sure this list is far from complete, but as a starting point, wouldn’t approaching life as art help us bring the proper set of attitudes between our actions and our work?  

7. Creative potential brings with it great responsibility! 

Gandhi lived his life in concert with the following belief:  “The living forces – cultural, collective spiritual – that stand ready to be released in to the world, need us for their expression.”  In a similar vein Maya Angelou says of creative expression, “The binding force of all the arts is the challenge of being human.  All creative acts, regardless of the shape they take, are acts of service and devotion to the larger world of which we are a part.”  What I glean from both of these great thinkers is that while our potential as creative beings is at once a blessing and a privilege, it brings with it obligation and responsibility! 

We all have something to offer, something essential to bring into the world, that only we can give.  We all see certain things more clearly than others. We all have an indispensable place, a unique role to play with the whole of the world we inhabit.  What if we lived with the belief that our genuine moments of insight may very well be what is needed here and now, in this time and place, for ourselves and others – and maybe even for the world itself?  We have only to gain by embracing such a belief, and much to lose by pretending that what we have to say and give does not matter.  

I look forward to delving further into the theme of “Life as Art” in future issues of this newsletter, exploring ideas on how to see new possibilities, engage in the process of discovery, and employ the powers of imagination as we envision our careers, our vocations, and our larger lives.  In the meantime, may you be looking to this new year as clay in your hands, inviting you to shape something beautiful, useful and true …

To the artist in each of us,  

~ Denise
 

Read Denise's previous (December 2007) newsletter...

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Thoughts to Consider

“We are not here to simply witness creation, but to abet it.”

- Annie Dillard

 “The greatest art is that of making a complete human being out of oneself.”

 - Joseph Campbell

 “To be nothing in the self-effacement of humility,
yet, for the sake of the task, to embody its whole weight and importance in your bearing, as the one who has been called to undertake it. To give to people works, poetry, art, and what the self can contribute, and to take, simply and freely, what belongs to it by reason of its identity …
towards this, so help me, God.”

- Dag Hammarskjold

 “If only human beings could be more reverent toward their fruitfulness…”

 - Rainer Marie Rilke

 Yes, there is such a thing as heaven on earth;
It is leading your sheep to green pasture,
And in putting your child to sleep,
And in writing the last line of your poem.

  – Kahlil Gibran

 Among the languages of American Indians there is no word for “art”. 
For them, everything is art … therefore it needs no name.

 -  Jamake Highwater

Putting It into Practice

1. Choose one activity in your life that feels mundane and tiresome which could benefit from your creativity and the perspective of an artist.  Consider how you might approach it differently, treating it like an art project.
    

2. Consider the areas of your life which you use as a vehicle for your own authentic expression.  How might you add to that realm?
    

3. As you look to the new year, (perhaps to the next week or the next month), consider this slice of time like a canvas awaiting your inspiration, intention, and devotion.  What do you wish to express or create on that canvas – good health, a deepened sense of serenity, more time for yourself?  Consider naming the piece in advance, for example, “The Year of Getting Back in Shape”, “The Week of Better Sleep”, or “The Month to Reconnect with Family”.
    

4. Thinking about the work you do on a daily basis, in and outside the workplace, consider the extent to which you employ the following qualities and skills which are brought to bear in the creative process.  Discern which of these qualities you would like to cultivate to a greater degree which would enhance your efforts in a particular endeavor.  

• Desire to express what you see and know into a form that can be shared with others;
   

• Willingness to look at things in a new way, transcending traditional ideas and forms in order to create new ones;
   

• Critical discernment in choosing what and how to create;
   

• Humility and the balance between confidence and questioning; 
   

• Dedication to the mastery of the medium;
   

• Balance between initiative and receptivity;
   

• Balance between spontaneity and playfulness and deep concentration;
   

• Sustained effort over the long term, knowing that some things cannot be forced;
   

• A disciplined approach to completion and follow-through;
   

• The process of revision and the ability to edit and refine your work;
   

• A quest for excellence. 

Denise Bissonnette's Publications

Beyond Barriers to Passion and Possibility

A terrific new in-service training package for your organization! In this compelling DVD presentation, Denise Bissonnette offers practical and innovative ways to assist job seekers in changing their focus from their limitations and barriers to their assets and gifts. Drawn from her popular books and curricula developed over the last twenty years, Denise presents several “key inquiries” to identifying a person’s passion, uncovering their work preferences, and envisioning fresh possibilities in the world of work. The ideas and techniques presented can be used as part of a job club, in a job search workshop, or in one-on-one counseling situations. (1 Hour, 48 minutes) See more details...

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