Ferns and Thorns: The Values of Art and Creativity

As I sit outside, on my little hand-made patio/walkway between two stone walls, I observe my surroundings. There are two types of plants growing out from the walls-- a thorned type of plant, and ferns. One, a plant has a defense mechanism with its thorned protection, and the other, just green and free. These two plants, I think, are representative of my father. But I will leave that metaphorical correlation to the imagination for another time.

However, I will use this fern and thorn plant symbolism to my creative advantage as well-- because, that is just what happens with a creative mind. I write this blog simply for my own wellness. And for that, I share this publicly, for maybe you will gain an insight on the power writing-- as a self-expression and self-working tool. "Believe in the power of art and creativity," is what my mother used to say to me, and taught me to believe in too. I always have to this day, and I always will.

We only tend to value a selected few artists, many willing to spend hundreds, thousands, on ones art. Why is that? What sets these artists apart from the millions of other artists around the world? If you want to know my honest answer, it's conceit and effective marketing. That's it. It's a source of insurmountable self-belief and drive to expose your art to the world, trying to convince people that your art is different, more valuable than the rest. Not that anything is wrong with conceit, it's just about how much one has of it.

Therefore, in this culture, if your conceit is high, your value is high. If your value is high, the more likely you are to receive monetary compensation for your art. Because, after all, money is our society's ultimate value symbol. So, to tie this in with the symbolism, the paid artists of world are like the thorned plants, they are not free, they are just protected. But then you have the artists who make art, because they must. It's a means of survival, to keep their mind and heart clean. It is a purging. So, why have conceit over the purge? It doesn't matter, because the art is just the digestion of ones internal work. The art, after all, does not matter, so what use will it be to someone else? That's why these artists don't put a price on their beautiful piece of digestion. Somehow, to me, these kinds of artists equate to the ferns. And somehow, they hold a more meaningful type of value for human wellbeing.

For these fern artists, the art ends up holding value not so much in the product, but the in the process of healing the artist receives from it. And this value is priceless.