Tapestry

“I am an artist” – this is a statement I hear quite often from the people within my circles.  But what I have found with this statement, more so than any other vocational statement, is that it is always coupled with the additional statement of what it is they actually do (“I paint, I write music”).  “Doctors” or “engineers” can simply get away with stating this is their vocation without additional clarification, whereas with an artist, if they do not offer this seemingly necessary statement right away (often somewhat apologetically), others are sure to ask (“Oh! An artist! What do you do?”).

Well, I am an artist, too (or at least I tell “non-artists” this…).  If you were to ask me, I would say I am a musician (even this I feel needs to be explained further: I play piano and sing). 

But as the pattern of my life is changing in so many different areas, I am learning that it is not what I do that defines me as an artist.  It is the product of myself that is my greatest ‘art’.  Whether I am the sole artist and can take full credit or I am collaborating with Another (which I would argue is the case), it is my life that is being molded, shaped, created, and reflects all of the goodness, beauty, pain, and struggle within the world.

When melodies I am trying to write only last 4 measures or my piano gets dusty from lack of use, I try to take comfort that it is not what or how much music I produce that qualifies me as an artist, but a recognition that I myself am a work of art that is changing and growing and working on the greatest piece of my career.

Carole King said it best in her beautiful song, “Tapestry”.

"My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue

An everlasting vision of the ever changing view

A wondrous woven magic in bits of blue and gold

A tapestry to feel and see, impossible to hold"

Ok, ok. I'll get off the couch and start working on a song to post.