by Heather Nicholson
Survival is insufficient. This is written on the side of the wagon the traveling performers drive through the post-apocalyptic landscape in Station Eleven. They painted it there because Seven of Nine, from Star Trek: Voyager said it. Seven is a former human rescued from the Borg collective (the “Resistance is futile” guys) and integrated into the Voyager’s crew. She said this in an episode that ends up being about what it means to be human, and it was a revelation to her. Merely surviving, existing from one day to the next, is not enough. There’s more to life than just being alive. I have that line tattooed on my arm as a reminder.
Author and all-around wonderful weirdo Kurt Vonnegut exhorts us from his 2005 novel A Man Without a Country to make art. “The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable.” He wants us to sing, dance, tell stories, and write poems, even if they’re bad. It’s part of being a human. A valuable, no, integral part. “Do it as well as you possibly can,” he says. “You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
What better thing is there in the world than to have created something? Bread and Puppet, an activism-focused theater group that’s been around since the 1960’s, published the “Why Cheap Art? Manifesto” in 1984. They printed this and other artwork on scraps of cardboard and pieces of whatever paper they had lying around, then sold the prints for ten cents to a dollar just to get art into the hands of anyone and everyone. Here it is, including the slightly cringey all-caps:
PEOPLE have been THINKING too long that
ART is a PRIVILEGE of the MUSEUMS & the
RICH. ART IS NOT BUSINESS!
It does not belong to banks & fancy investors
ART IS FOOD. You can’t EAT it BUT it FEEDS
you. ART has to be CHEAP & available to
EVERYBODY. It needs to be EVERYWHERE
because it is the INSIDE of the
WORLD.
ART SOOTHES PAIN!
Art wakes up sleepers!
ART FIGHTS AGAINST WAR & STUPIDITY!
ART SINGS HALLELUJA!
ART IS FOR KITCHENS!
ART IS LIKE GOOD BREAD!
Art is like green trees!
Art is like white clouds in blue sky!
ART IS CHEAP!
HURRAH!
Hurrah, indeed! Art is for everyone, and it feeds us. Lately—since, oh, November 4th of 2024 just to pick a date—I have found myself saying frequently, “Let people find whatever shred of joy they can in this hellscape in which we live.” Art is joy like good bread is joy. (And good bread is art, if you ask me.) I read that manifesto aloud at the beginning of the 24-hour Play Festival this past July, hosted by Get Uncomfortable Productions, and it was just what we needed to hear before we split up to brainstorm (writers) and play improv games (actors) for half an hour. Then we reconvened to share ideas, and about 23 hours later, we performed four brand-new pieces of theater that were all conceived, written, cast, and rehearsed in one day. Remembering that “art wakes up sleepers” and “is the inside of the world” freed us to put anything we wanted on the page and onto the stage, and we knew it was beautiful and had value because we made it.
The older we get, the less art we make. Everyone played recorders and finger-painted fall leaves on a tree in elementary school, but when was the last time you messed around with watercolor paints or chalk pastels on black paper just for fun? Do you ever sing except when you’re alone in your car with the radio? Society tells us that art is a waste of time unless we can make money from it, but starting an Etsy shop should not be the goal of learning to knit, paint, or sculpt, and just because you have a “good” voice or play guitar doesn’t mean you have to start a YouTube channel. Noodle around on the piano keyboard that’s been gathering dust just for the joy of noodling. Go to karaoke with your friends and sing your hearts out because human beings’ bond and love each other even more when they sing together. Smear paint around on a piece of paper or a canvas or a little wooden box you put trinkets in. MAKE ART!
“Don’t think,” another writer and delightful weirdo, Ray Bradbury, tells us. “Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.” This doesn’t mean you should paint thoughtlessly or write a novel without any planning. It means that you shouldn’t get so into your head about any of it to the point where, “What if it’s not good enough?” or even just, “What if it’s not good?” paralyzes you so you’re unable to even start.
Where do you start? Just start! There’s a lot to be said for using quality tools and supplies, but there’s nothing wrong with the cheap stuff you can find at the store or even a thrift shop. Google “art prompts” if you’re stuck on what to paint, draw, write about, or sculpt. Close your eyes and point at one on the list. Ask your kid what he wants you to draw, or text a friend for ideas. And then DO IT!
If you need moral support or companionship while you make art, join a club! Grand Valley Zine Club meets once a month to make and trade zines; GJ Drawing Club, they say on their Facebook page, hosts “fun events in Grand Junction, CO for artists of all ages to work on improving their artwork and have fun while doing it!” There are many community theater groups around the valley that need actors but also tech folks, people to make sets and props, costumers, and more, and they would all be thrilled to have you. Western Colorado Writer’s Forum hosts happy hour hangouts with other writerly people along with a monthly open mic at Carboy Winery in Palisade. Go to an open mic night (there are lots around the valley including at Lithic and Copeka) to get inspiration and meet with other creatives. It’s even easier to make art (and want to make art) if you consume art regularly. Go to galleries during First Friday in Grand Junction and “stuff your eyes with wonder” (more Bradbury, from Fahrenheit 451, a novel about the importance of telling stories). Shop at vendor fairs like the ones at Base Camp and Ramblebine so you can 1) support local artists and 2) have cool art in your house. The Open Market, based in Western Colorado, is about to publish a holiday shopping guide; in the meantime, check out their website. All of these clubs and places can be found with a quick search on social media or in your internet browser.
Imagine a week in your life without any music in the car or your headphones, without a single television show or movie, no YouTube reels, not a single book on your shelves, no paintings or prints on your walls, no pictures on your coffee mugs. Art is everywhere, and we need it. “Art is food. You can’t eat it, but it feeds you.” It soothes pain! It sings Hallelujah!
Hurrah!
###
The Revolutionist is 100% volunteer run and subscriber funded. We do not sell our soul for advertising dollars, nor do we prostrate ourselves for grants from the non-profit industrial complex. We are community media. Join the community! Subscribe today at whatever rate you can, and get a hard copy of The Revolutionist in your mailbox. Subscribing subsidizes free distribution copies.
The Revolutionist 