The Doorkeeper

When life gets overwhelming, and even when it seems a bit pointless, one of the best things you can do is surround yourself with art. Art rejuvenates the soul. It awakens a place of light and warmth within you and helps you begin to believe again.

Emerging artists, in particular, have a dichotomy, a contradiction between the near-hopeless, “Will I make it as an artist ?” and the, “I’m going to make this piece anyway,” hope that truly keeps us striving.

One night, years ago, I was thinking about this as I headed to dinner with my friend Patrick. He and I had been part of a church group that toured Israel. At dinner that night, without my saying a word about it, Patrick reminded me about our time spent at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. It’s known as the place of names and remembrance and is where we saw level upon level of heartbreak. But there were stories of hope, too.

Patrick reminded me of the art that was found at every level of the heartbreak: The smuggled sketch, a wooden carving, poetry, diary entries. These things were a matter of life, not death. Life. They served as a reason for existence. They captured life’s stories; they chronicled and described day-to-day struggles; they were grasps at the comfort of memories in a dark world.

“Remember the art,” he said.

Art helps us find beauty in the every day, and it serves as the doorkeeper to belief: Belief in oneself, in a higher cause, in everything that’s better than the circumstances taken alone.

When in times of trial, or when you feel surrounded by darkness, look to art. Go to a museum, read poetry, Google paintings if you must, but find art and immerse yourself in it.

It will recharge a battery within you that has been lacking. And life will look better when you emerge again, of that I’m sure.

~Originally posted on my finelinebooks blog