The Art and The Artist

Hi everyone! It's been a bit. I accidentally took a semester off of writing blogs. If you hadn't noticed my last one from... my goodness... October of 2022, I had a very busy semester during Fall of 2022. My last blog was released before rehearsals for the show I Assistant Directed and Music Directed, The Moors, even started rehearsing. Once that began, all hope of time off, time available, and time for energy was lost to the aether. That on top of my heavy class and artistic schedule, writing for the Boston University College of Fine Arts Communications team, and editing/writing my own plays (yes I did once again write an entire play in a week on accident, why do you ask), I really struggled to have the drive and fuel to write my Broadway World blogs. But I'm back! I hope.

Instead of talking about the college experience as a BFA Theatre Arts major at BU, I thought I'd discuss a philosophy of art that I hold: I firmly believe that the best mode of learning for an artist is through the consumption of other art. It is so important for us to be patrons of art and artists. It's not only a way of giving back to our fellow artists, but also a brilliant method of learning for our own artistic gain. Inspiration strikes from others, so it only makes sense that artists become inspired by the art of others.

For years, I have considered my intake of art in a variety of mediums as part of my work as an artist. Sure, I watch movies, read books, etc for fun, but saying I do it to enhance my artistic work makes me feel more productive and allows me to actively engage with and take in said art in critical and enlightening ways.

The books I read make me a better narrative writer. The plays I read make me a better playwright. The TV shows I watch make me a better long-form storyteller and TV actor. The films I watch make me a better specific storyteller and film actor. The plays I watch make me a better world-builder/image creator/stage actor. The music I listen to makes me a better short-form storyteller/musician/songwriter. The musicals I watch make me a better dynamic storyteller and musical theatre actor. There are no bounds to what I can learn from the intake of my artforms.

However, it isn't just our own artforms that we learn from. For me, visual arts aren't exactly my expertise nor are they my niche. Despite this, I constantly seek out visual art as a source for inspiration and enlightenment for my own self and art. There's no reason not to, what with the surplus of accessibility of visual art. Art is everywhere, conventional and unconventional, whether it's the currations and collections of visual art in museums and galleries (and an extra bonus, Boston University students get free entrance to the local museums), street art and graffiti along city walls and sidewalks, murals commissioned by cities, pictures hanging on café walls...

And it isn't just that. There's art in things simple as people in a window, grass rippling in the wind, history impacting today, feet pounding on gravel, the clouds moving and colliding. And I take it all in. I take a mental picture of it, stow it in the smallest caves of my brain so that I can look back on those moments-all that art-and weave those images into my own art. This art in everyday life is absolutely necessary to my process and my inspiration.

Photo by Alexa Connors, featuring Lana Sage and Josie Goldfarb