Free to follow a vision?

‘If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him...'

It was difficult to decide on a first post. Doing the norm is something I try to avoid, more for the sake of a personal challenge but also to prepare myself for the unexpected in life. And so I began to think about my childhood and when I started to use art as a way of expressing myself without question or expectation. How now, I recognise the expectations we hold over ourselves and others as a society and how still I use art to sustain a balance in life.

I like to think as an artist I strive for free will but it goes without saying that even artists, whatever their craft are stifled by the opinions of those around them. Art is categorised into many forms, already we have limited the artists freedom to express themselves, haven't we?

We as human beings naturally search for reason and understanding and as we grow more apparent of the world around us we begin to put ourselves and others into boxes. This limits the free will of expression and surely curbs the ultimate vision? Its taken me years to accept that what I write, is in fact never wrong but an expression of ones self. This is also true in life, to speak without fear of judgment or misunderstanding.

This brings me to dislexia and the struggles I know not just myself but others have had to overcome. My desire to write for pleasure despite others opinions has allowed me to reach a place of acceptance within myself, and the expectations I have now are simply to enjoy the experiance.

What it really comes down is that our feelings, experiences, visions, dreams and ambitions are the very things that set us apart from each other, and we as artists (writers, performers etc) should not search for approval, but to open the minds of those who seek it.