Instruments of Art

Something magical happens every time I watch American Idol. Or So You Think You Can Dance. Or Top Chef. Not only do I get sucked into that world for an hour or two a week, but I also start fantasizing. I start thinking, I could be the next American Idol. Or, I’m just a few dance classes away from So You Think You Can Dance.

That fantasy feeling usually lasts an hour or two after the show, in which I start looking up songs to sing or break out my ballet slippers and start tip-toeing my way around the apartment. Eventually it wears off and I realize how much I hate being on stage in front of hundreds or thousands or millions of people. What was I thinking? Must have been momentary insanity.

Since becoming a writer, though—an artist* in my own right—I’ve started thinking about why I take these little plunges into fantasy. And why I always return to reality. After a lot of thought on the matter, I realized there is only one answer:

Artists cannot convey their purpose through thought alone. People can’t read minds. Artists need an instrument of expression that translates the thoughts in their mind into a medium that others can (usually) understand.

The reason we are so drawn into So You Think You Can Dance is because those dancers are expressing emotion, character, and story using their bodies as their instruments of art. Next time, watch the dancers when they receive their critiques from the judges. Whether the results or good or bad, you’ll see the dancer’s reaction in their entire body. Dancers making it through to the next round invariably jump up and down, wave their arms in the air, or fall to their knees in relief. Their emotions come out through their bodies. They can’t help it because their bodies are their instruments.

In the same way, a painter uses a brush and paint and canvas to express emotion. As Georgia O’Keeffe said:

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way — things I had no words for.

Me, I have the words for those things. (Or, at least, I try to have them. I strive to have them.)

My dad is a theatrical lighting designer, and anyone who has ever seen one of his shows knows that light is his instrument. He can tell a story, convey the essence of a moment using light alone. Can’t you just sense the emotion happening in the photo below?

You don’t even have to know what show it is to know that this is a moment of separation, of goodbye, of abandonment. My dad uses light in the same way I use words, in the same way the playwright (Tennessee Williams, btw) used words.

I believe that all arts have their unique instruments. Singers, obviously, use their voices. Dancers, their bodies. A chef, his food. Actors use something akin to their entire souls to embody character. Musicians literally use their instruments, sculptors use their hands, and architects use stone, metal and glass. Though they all pursue the same purpose, conveying emotion, it is the instrument that differentiates the various arts.

In a way, I feel a little guilty every time I start practicing songs or doing arabesques in the living room. Is it demeaning to the artist who inspired me to think I, too, could achieve their level of skill? Or is it a testament to their talent that I am so inspired? Maybe it’s both? (And at least I come back to my senses before I go registering for voice lessons.)

Maybe it comes down to the difference between skill and talent. With enough practice anyone can learn to yield a brush or a guitar or words with a certain degree of skill. I could learn to sing well enough to not embarrass myself on karaoke night. (Okay, maybe not.) But I’ll never have the vocal talent to move people with music in the way Aretha Franklin or John Lennon or Michael Jackson can.

I’ve discovered my instrument, my means of communicating emotion to others, and I strive every day to improve my skill and (hopefully) development my talent. I’ll leave the other instruments to the artists who belong to them.

Hugs,
TLC

* by “artist” I mean anyone who uses a creative means to convey a thought/emotion/story/character/moment to others