Art is all around us. Art like love has to be seen with the eyes of the heart first. What comes from the heart, goes to the heart. Whether it’s light or dark, matters not. Art is all around just like love is. If you’re blind,  you’re going to miss it .Even the darkest of souls can produce breath-taking art. For you see, to  make art one must have faith in the unseen. It takes the tiniest seed of faith, like that of a mustard seed, to move mountains. So with a minuscule grain of belief, one can see the unseen, speak the unspoken, write the unwritten. Reach the unreachable, touch the untouchable,love the unlovable. Thaw out the glaciers in another’s soul. Start a bon fire in a heart full of ashes.

Art transcends time and space. As artists we grow frustrated because we live on a 2 dimensional plain;when we know that the 3rd dimension and dimensions beyond that  do  exist. We travel to those dimensions, while day dreaming and at night we continue dreaming with our eyes closed. Artists are time travelers. We journey there and bring back snap shots of it. Through our artistic expression, we pull the future into the now. We travel back in time using our passion as our time machine;we learn from the past’s light and dark moments. We honor fallen heroes. We keep the memory of our ancestors alive  and pay homage to them by telling their stories through different forms of self-expression. We stay in the present as well, knowing that above all, what matters most is living fully, NOW! We do so to capture it in its purest form so we can pass it down to unborn generations.

It takes courage to be an artist in our world, But then again,I believe all artists at all times have needed pluckiness as well. Leonardo Da Vinci and his plans for a flying machine; what did his contemporaries say when he showed them the sketches for it . Or, did he even have the nerve to show them? Mark Twain penned Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven; a book that in my humble opinion is his best masterpiece. He worked on it through out his life and had it published posthumously. It took boldness to write his account oh how he saw heaven. Could it be he chose to protect his work from viscous critics and only to share it with the world once he vacated its premises?

It takes valor to live the life of an artist:

To write from your gut.

To dance your heart out.

To invent something that will help humanity.

To sing a new song to the heart-broken.

To compose symphony after symphony while you’re completely deaf. That must have taken Mr. Beethoven extra nerve.

It takes true grit to paint when you’re almost legally blind, Mr. Monet produced the best work of his career when he lost his sight.

It takes  bravery to put a pencil to your mouth and draw amazing pictures when you’re a paraplegic in a wheelchair.

It takes gallantry to go from once having played the role of Superman;flying around in his red cape .Leaping over tall buildings in one single bound. To end up in a wheel chair for the rest of his life, yet touching the masses more than when he appeared on the silver screen.

What about the young Spaniard soccer player who hurt himself in a car accident and lost his passion for life when he couldn’t do what he loved most. Then he gets a guitar and turned world-wide recording artist.These and numerous more artists continue to beckon us all to follow our hearts and listen to our gut

Art creates ambience. Art instills feeling and gives a place its soul.Art is alive and has a heart beat, Even dark,moody art can inspire;it can let us know we’re not alone in our own darkness. Art can make you feel a mess inside and it can quiet your restless heart. 3 little letters combine to make such a powerful word.Like love, which is one letter more; the shortest words can create beauty or wreak havoc.

Perhaps artists are closest to God‘s heart because we’re foolish enough to see the unseen,then we believe it and finally,we make something from nothing. There is love,there is faith and then, there’s art. The 3 work together,always to benefit us all.

EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2013