Koyaanisqatsi …

KOYAANISQATSI.

Have you ever heard this word before? It’s a HOPI word that means – life out of balance.

When I find myself struggling , it’s often a result of having something in my life out of balance. It can happen all too easily. You start a new project. You decide to diet, begin an excercise program or maybe your work becomes everything to you. You move. A dear one passes away. Love comes…or goes. Relationships drift away. You are up at night worrying about perfection, goals, achieving greatness. Your life is out of balance , and nothing seems to be working in concert.

If art has taught me anything, it has taught me that it’s not about the finished piece, it’s about the process that created it. In order to complete the work, I had to have a balanced mind and process of thinking . I needed to channel a certain clarity to my creative process to claw my way from the chaos of an idea to the resolution of a message. Having my life out of balance sent me running  to art as a process for finding order again. Order in my mind as well as my actions.

This is what I have learned. It’s the messy stuff, the confusion, the searching and the questioning that make for good art. It’s not a technique you have mastered. It’s also what makes a thoughtful person who values lessons well learned and battles hard fought.

There are questions that matter. And it’s up to us to find answers that give our life meaning and purpose. I think we are on the right track when our life is in balance. But don’t be scared of KOYAANISQATSI, because that is the inroad to whatever process you follow on the path to answering questions that matter.