No really...is it Art?

     I’ve never really considered myself an artist…for me to do so would be a classic denial of my chosen philosophy of not allowing myself to be attached to any one specific group or subset of culture.  I adamantly reject the notion that one must subject themselves to years of so-called ‘training’ and education to be considered among a more artistic peer group.  Living in Seattle, I had an association with a few of these artsy types…they had plotted and studied every single aspect of art.  It always seemed to me that some were incredibly busy trying to BE artists, and not just being artists.  I subscribe to the philosophy of self-realization.  It shares a bit of the same thinking as other paths such as Zen and Tao.   Tao teaches us the concept of ‘wu wei,’ which loosely translated means to ‘do without doing.’ 
     I’m still in the process of fitting it all together at this point, but I’ll be able to draw the connections between the wu wei and its relevance to modern Buddhism.  If I am to create, I can’t do it out of a desire to make a statement.  This creates the suffering that is spoken of in the first of the four noble truths in classic Buddhism.  So, I create out of no other necessity than to simply create.  Art for Art’s sake, but I still have to dodge that label.  I suppose if there were any desire I could come to think of, it would probably be the desire for space and a big pile of scrap from which to work.  Some tools would be nice.  But to create something to possibly display would be a small dream of mine.  For as long as I can remember though, I’ve always had this intense creative streak, which sometimes spills out into other areas of my life.  Almost everything I do has some sort of creative something in it somewhere, all you have to do is look for it.  It can possibly be the way that I word something in a sentence or the way I link or tie two objects together to create a mobile. 
     The devil is in the details, I say.  It’s one thing to appreciate a piece overall, to look at it and say, “this is nice” or whatever you think about it.  It’s another thing to pay attention to what makes up the piece.  The nuts, the bolts, how the glass is suspended by the wire; the way the spoons are bent and the way the rocks seem to balance in their bowls.  I like to create things that change with a silent and very fluid, very natural motion.  This is why I like creating mobiles.  On the whole, the physical makeup of the piece never changes.  But because it’s constantly moving around with the air currents in the wind, or just simple gravitational effects, they never appear to be the same at all.  They constantly change as they drift along on whatever breeze they happen to catch.  “Suspended Animation” I like to call it.  Another aspect of my work is that it’s multi dimensional.  You should be able to examine it from any angle you choose.  That’ll let you see what really went into the piece, and give you better access to the details.  If I were a genuine sculptor and could work in that media, I would be creating things that everyone could approach and climb upon and explore.