Am currently reading Leonard Koren's book: Wabi- Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers. It had been sitting on the shelf in my inspiration bookcase for a few months, when a customer came into Book Soup yesterday and requested it. He was so enthusiastic to know that I had heard of it that I knew it was time to read it.

It is a simple quick read, and one that speaks directly to my life at the moment as well as the lives of those around me. So many people I know in Los Angeles and elsewhere seem to be at points of transition. And not easy transition, but painful and wrenching transition, either because of illness, sudden car accidents, break-ups, career changes, and many others. In the arena of there being three legs to the life stool (love and friendship, home, and work), it seems many of us are afraid our stools aren't standing up well enough to hold us.

This book is a beautiful example of how to trust these moments and just keep going... I'll share bits through the time I read it, because I think it is worth writing about more than once.

image: pictoscribe via flickr.

"How do we feel about what we know?

Acceptance of the inevitable: Wabi-sabi is an appreciation of the evanescence of life. The luxuriant tree of summer is now only withered branches under a winter sky. All that remains of a splendid mansion is a crumbled foundation overgrown with weeds and moss. Wabi-sabi images force us to contemplate our own mortality, and they evoke an existential loneliness and tender sadness. They also stir a mingled bittersweet comfort, since we know all existence shares the same fate."

-from Wabi-Sabi.

There is some comfort in at least feeling these periods of loss and transition are mirrored by nature. it is hard to argue with the order of nature and the fits of "this shouldn't be happening to me" that sometimes come up as I am frustrated and, in many ways, in shock that my life looks so different now than it did a month ago, are really just as futile as getting angry that summer is turning into fall.

I know that ultimately all the changes that are occuring for me and those around me will make some kind of sense to us. I am being polished pretty roughly at the moment, like the story of the river stone, but at the same time I would be foolish to ignore the possibilities that are coming through because of this. The fact that my being so exposed let me speak easily to a friend I'd argued with a year and a half ago last night. And that I am able to reach out to so many people who have been more than simply kind in offering to be of support.

And because, somewhere in the middle of this, I might get to move into a magical little home that I know is one I have dreamed of for a long time. So that leg of the stool will get held up. I had thought this would happen differently. There was a big part of me that hoped for a particlarl storyline. But if i know anything at this point in my life, it is that the storyline that is happening is usually far more valid than the one I keep trying to convince myself is true.

Cross your fingers for me, and there will be an amazing housewarming before too long. Thank you and thank you again to all of you for putting up with m during this period of time. I have never felt so unpredcitable, even to myself. I am so grateful you have been kind enough to treat me like it's all normal.

One of the biggest challenges I have when working with creative people is to get them to set a real cash value on their products and services that is adequate. People who were formerly cutthroat corporate who would never come down on a price waver on even recouping costs and time spent. Why is this?

What is it about work that involves our creativity and is more personal and intuitive that makes it less valuable? Why do artists routinely waffle on whether or not they even deserve the title? It seems that culturally we are in a bit of a black hole, where as art education funding is cut, so is our respect for the arts as a legitimate field of work.

Another voice on this topic is Gwen Bell, writing about women versus men on this topic, in a similar vein.

What do we need to do to claim ourselves as both creative AND professional?

image: loving earth via flickr

As long as creativity is seen as a gift that flies down from above and lands on the chosen few, we will think that it was inspiration and not perspiration that got the job done. While creativity is something that pulls some people rather than others, how is this a different scenario than someone having a calling to be a dentist and then going into training in order to be one. How is drawing different? Or sculpture or writing? the only difference from a practical standpoint is the fact that artists do not generally get jobs with benefits, long term guarantees like corporate jobs sometimes do.

It seems that what we expect from artists is the ability to thrive in uncertain circumstances without support or structure. Artists must seek out the projects, plan them, execute them, find locations and clients to purchase the art. Why then, do we also expect that by doing so, artists should also earn less money? And why in fact do the artists themselves go along with it?

As long as we believe it is unfair to earn good money and enjoy ourselves while doing it, people will undersell the services they have to offer, especially if they are creative.

So if you are in this category, or plan to be: listen to Gwen Bell, listen to me, listen to yourself. Stop it stop it. Mark yourself up more. You are worth it, and so is art and creativity in general.