The Importance of Having Secondary Art Forms

Finding your art is as important as, and quite possibly an extension of, finding your God.

It's an outlet, a source of psychological and spiritual alchemy, a life-line. A boon.

“Art is God’s original medicine for humanity. ”

Art is God's original medicine for humanity.

I have found it vital in my own life to find my God and find my art. I also think that God is so abundant that, although we are each given primary art forms, we are also given secondary art forms. For me, my various art forms are painting, writing poetry and books, cooking, exercise and photography.

What is art except assigning meaning to something that other people may not think matters or makes sense?

“What is art except assigning meaning to something that other people may not think matters or makes sense?”

A dilapidated wall of an abandoned building in Aruba becomes a vibrant reminder that brilliant composition is everywhere. And when it's so perfect as it is, I stood convinced that no attempt to paint it could ever improve it. So I may as well simply capture it, in itself.

“If lived properly, all of life can be art.”

An aged subway platform reminds me of the great Anselm Keifer's technique of allowing nature to do for the artist what the artist simply cannot. He frequently speaks of burying paintings and setting them out in the rain to allow nature to finish the creation of the piece. The weathering process in nature is remarkable.

I believe that having more than one art form is important because, if done properly, they can feed and inspire each other.

The colors and patterning of a silver bowl of vegetables and fruit on a marble counter top inspired my very first still life painting, "Still-Life (Abstract)" in 2017. I was struck by its composition and, like a fiend, I felt a deep compulsion within in me to pursue that. Honor it. Paint it. Enjoy it even more by immersing myself in it. Become it. Submerse my consciousness so wholly in its inadvertent perfect design that it becomes something holy. It became my prayer.

If lived properly, all of life can be art- cooking, eating, moving, breathing, dressing, kissing, laughing, walking, being.

Art's secondary forms in my life has taught me about these tiny moments of life which deserve drinking in. A composition here. A color there. A hug, a feeling, a sunset.

So I guess the point is not to achieve simply "secondary" art forms, but to grow toward the fruition of all other art forms.

May you find the beauty of art in every aspect of your life, knowing that- always- where beauty is, there is your God.

TRISHA WILES