LANDSCAPE OF LOSS

Loss is often seen as a negative quality, but with a shift in perspective it becomes possible to learn to understand loss as a gift. A loss of inhibitions as a catalyst to greater heights of personal development can be one such gift. Maybe a breakdown and loss of ideologies, social constructs, and limiting thought patterns or behaviors can be understood and relished as a gift. As an artist I learn and grow daily and I've come to see my loss of artistic restraint and barriers to my imagination as gifts highly regarded and appreciated. Yet loss is also an uncomfortable and often despairing process to experience.

It's never a great feeling to come face to face with the loss of long held ideas, comfortable habits, that which you love, or static lifestyle choices. Often times confronting these losses can be intimidating, frightening, and a bit despondent. This applies to artistic development as well an any other facet of life. I aspire to ground my perspective on such loss as one largely based in optimism and positivity.

When I find myself embracing and accepting the reality of loss rather than fighting it, I often find that I become more free to forge new ways of thinking, behaving and doing. Whether it be with creative endeavors or life in general, I secretly look forward to everything falling apart and nothing going as planned, that way anything becomes possible. I consider it a practice of problem solving, adaptation, and use of imagination. It may seem chaotic at times, but it allows me to overcome obstacles and make progress.

Without such destabilization and agitation growth can sometimes become stagnant or slow paced at best. It's in those unstable moments that I can begin the process of working through and moving forward to a deeper understanding and ability to create, navigate, or approach something. For these reasons I consider such loss of comfort and security as a gift worth receiving.

I've come to learn that at times I must expect the unexpected, disturb my comforts, let this landscape of loss consume me and give way to complete reckless abandon. I've come to understand how these actions can positively influence who I may become and ultimately advance my progress as an artist and individual. Without an occasional break from the status quo one may never come to know other ways of doing things or obtain a wider spectrum of understanding.

So I try to embrace the chaos, the despondency, the landscape of loss and I attempt to keep my mind focused on the benefits of such an embrace. May it all be wrong, may it all fall to pieces, and when nothing makes sense it may all come back together again.