6 below

Learning vs. Education . . . (Clip of the Week)

Just saw this on heyamberrae's blog. Couldn't agree more with the sentiment behind this clip especially after listening about the application inflation report on NPR today. Oh the college bubble may need to be burst.

Let's Start a Learning Revolution from Skillshare on Vimeo.

Miracle - Matisyahu Hanukkah Song

Here's a kind of poppy gem on Hanukkah from my favorite Orthodox Jewish Reggae Rapper from Brooklyn - Matisyahu.  The video is kind of cheesy on the surface - but dig a little & what emerges is a fun battle between faith & commercialization/secularization.  The hockey reference of course is a wonderful allusion to the miracle of the impossible . . .  Which of course references itself back to the miracle of the new emergence of reflective faith within a society crumbling beneath the weight of consumerism & greed. Good stuff.  Below are the lyrics . . . enjoy & Happy Hanukkah.

Just livin’ in the miracle, candles are my vehicle Eight nights, gonna shine invincible No longer be divisible, born through the struggle Keep on moving through all this hustle Head up, heads down through all of the bustle New York City wanna flex your muscle Look so down, look so puzzled Huddle ‘round your fire through all the rubble Bound to stumble and fall but my strength comes not from man at all Bound to stumble and fall but my strength comes not from man at all [Chorus] Do you believe in miracles Am I hearing you? Am I seeing you? Eight nights eight lights and these rites keep me right Bless me to the highest heights with your miracle Against all odds drive on till tomorrow Wipe away your tears and your sorrow Sunrise in the sky like an arrow No need to worry, no need to cry Light up your mind no longer be blind Him who searches will find Leave your problems behind you will shine like a fire in the sky what's the reason we’re alive – the reason we’re alive… Bound to stumble and fall but my strength comes not from man at all Bound to stumble and fall but my strength comes not from man at all [Chorus] Do you believe in miracles Am I hearing you? Am I seeing you? Eight nights eight lights and these rites keep me right Bless me to the highest heights with your miracle Eight is the number of infinity one more than what you know how to be And this is the light of festivity when your broken heart yearns to be free [Chorus] Do you believe in miracles Am I hearing you? Am I seeing you? Eight nights eight lights and these rites keep me right Bless me to the highest heights with your miracle

What's Your Art? III (Liu Bolin is the Invisible Man)

According to this article artist Liu Bolin paints himself into the background of urban cityscapes because of the dehumanizing effects of modern society.  So rather than paint on paper canvases to portray his disaffection & disconnection with 21st century urban contexts Liu Bolin will literally spend up to 10 hours painting himself (or having his assistants paint him) into the background of certain urban scenes.  At once becoming invisible to passersby while becoming a very part of the dehumanization he is protesting.

In the above-linked article Liu Bolin said: "'Some people call me the invisible man, but for me it's what is not seen in a picture which is really what tells the story.

'After graduating from school I couldn't find suitable work and I felt there was no place for me in society.

'I experienced the dark side of society, without social relations, and had a feeling that no one cared about me, I felt myself unnecessary in this world.

'From that time, my attitude turned from dependence into revolting against the system.'  

Liu said he was further pushed on with his work when the Chinese authorities shut down his art studio in Beijing in 2005.

He said: 'At that time, contemporary art was in quick development in Beijing, but the government decided it did not want artists like us to gather and live together."

In some ways I suppose Liu Bolin is telling us all, "I dare you to notice me.  And I'm going to make it hard for you to notice me.  But if on rare occasion you do notice me - you will not be able to ignore me."

And I suppose this is what all true art does.  It does not just serve the individual - rather it invites and demands us to twist our heads & see our place in this universe all over again. 

What is your art?  And what is keeping you from it?

 

 

bsp;

What's Your Art? II.5

"When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work.  I told her I worked at the college - that my job was to teach people how to draw.

She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, 'You mean they forget?'"

- Howard Ikemoto quoted in Art & Fear by David Bayles & Ted Orland

What's Your Art? II (A Skate Escalation - Kilian Martin & Brett Novak & Patrick Watson)

Art is canvas & paint.  Art is brush & pen.  Art is music & movement.  

The question we need to ask is what is my particular canvas?  What brush do I work with best?  And what music do I really move to - deeply & intimately. Or rather - what is the thing I do that I lose myself in entirely? That I get so far caught up into the "flow" & "zone" of this activity that hours become seconds & days become mere hours?

My daughter who is seven & can't help but move her legs & dance puts it this way - "I love to dance - I just have a song in my feet & it has to come out."

Beautiful.

And so then I must ask myself - what is the song in my feet that just has to come out?  And why I am so incessant at keeping that song unsung? 

The point is - we all have a song in our feet.  We've been to the promised land of having lost ourselves in something at some point in our living.  The greatest gift is finding our way back there.  To move out of the house of the mundane & to rhythm into the house of our art - our deepest calling.  

And there we must relentlessly guard the sacredness of that living.  This is not selfish. It is the unfolding of ourselves - of who we were meant to become.  And in that unfolding there exists great renewal not only for ourselves but for the universe at large.

God didn't make pawns - God made giants in the breath of love.  We simply need to wake up from our dogmatic slumber of the routine & the small. 

But here's the catch.  You will not get an official invitation in your inbox or mailbox asking you to risk into your art.  In fact the opposite is true: you'll receive a hundred invitations a day to live into the quick & the easy - and it's all junk mail.

Rather the great grand invitation from the King is inside of you.  And a response is inevitable.  You can deny it & give up the sacredness of your life.  You can accept it & embrace a journey that will lead into dark valleys & grand peaks.  Or you can ignore it (which I think many people do -religious & non-religious folk included) - and live reluctantly in the land of bitterness & regret.

The short films below are a meditation of sorts.  Initially we may be tempted to think that the only artist is the skater - indeed the art is in the choreography & power of the skating - but it is also exists in the colors & the shadows & angles of the film that the director captures, & it is in the music that underscores the depth & intimacy of the skater & his particular canvas.  Thanks to Dustin for giving me a heads up on these videos & cheers & blessings to him as he lives into his art in Antarctica starting tomorrow.

 

What's Your Art? (Pencil Vs Camera - art by Ben Heine)

"What's your art?"

Everyone has something deep inside begging to show just a bit of its brilliance to the world.  But somehow long ago (a year ago or 50 years ago) we learned to shelve that deep something in order to bow down & worship "expectations" - a euphemism for success guised in the routine & the mundane. 

There is brilliance inside of you.  Everyone has it.  But not everyone risks enough to embody it.  Secretly you know it's there - whether you're willing to admit it or not.  But too often your friends or your family or your colleagues are the ones who unintentionally extinguish the flame of your deepest callings - because dreams seem not to be a good way to "make a living."  And so you wake up yet another day to make a living & neglect to live a life.

You know what I mean.  And of course not everyone can draw like Ben Heine. And not everyone can play the cello like Zoe Keating or sing like Jackie Evancho. 

But everyone does have something.  And the world is dying to know it.  Don't live other people's small expectations for your life.  Stop it - you're miserable for doing so.  Begin living the giant unexpected dream God breathed deep inside of you.  Rhythm into the grand risk of it.  We can't wait to experience it.

Good Friday Art - Via Crucis by Simon Smith