Life is Art and Art is Life

When I think of the many years of painting portraits there is a direct relationship to how I present myself to perform in a costume. There is a mystery, an exotic, an historical and a magical. For those that know me well, they know that this is who I am.

I often feel I was born in the wrong time, the wrong place and the wrong body. Of course I am grateful for who I am and what I have, but there has always been this deja vu, a sense of a distant past beyond my past years of life. Without arrogance, I do think I am exceptional but I am most certainly an exception to the average person. I am influenced and inspired by my environment both geographically and emotionally. "I guess you could say I am a dreamer"...ja ja ja. The desire to dream, escape to another world and have the heightened sensitivity to what I see, smell, feel and touch has been a blessing and a curse. The blessing is the ability to make art, the curse can be feeling too much. At times I think if I applied myself more, had more confidence, I could have taken my crazy, cool, funky self to another level and perhaps made success from it.

As we approach Halloween, my most sacred day of the year, it is that one opportunity to dress up, be something else, perhaps an alter ego of your own self. It does not matter, because we are safe on this day. It is all expected because it is the dress up holiday and we honour it with praise and prizes. It is unfortunate that when you dress up in this manner on a day that is not Halloween the opposite often happens...you are strange, confused, bizarre or needing attention. Well, perhaps that is all true, but when you do and on a rare occasion I do, it is an experiment of a sociological manner. Today, more than ever, if you do not fit in a box or a clear defined definition, something is wrong with you and society will remind you of that at times in an aggressive manner. Amazingly, I have found it is the children, the very young ones that find diversity, the bizarre to be wonderful, mysterious....as long as it is not too scary. It is only until the adult teachers that different is strange, wrong.

This Halloween, whether you decide to dress up or not, express your alter ego, I want you to think about something important. In this social media, edited world, it is time to put more effort in being and honouring your true self, whatever that may be. It takes guts, courage and strength to be your authentic self. On Halloween consider more the personality that you project and not the costume or makeup. Give it a test drive and then the day after and the days forward remember that feeling, hopefully a good one, and express it more often. I guarantee you, the new you, or rather the you that was always you, will shine brightly and great things will happen. I cannot tell you of those great things, but you will know the feeling like an old friend. You are the most amazing work of art that cannot be reproduced. Only you can change it, improve it, destroy it. Be the best piece of art you can be and life will become a masterpiece of your own making.