Everyone is an artist

Last Friday morning I heard an English translation of a poem by Joseph Beuys. I know little of Joseph Beuys and yet what I do know tells me this is a person of deep compassion. Observing Germany and Germans post world war two Beuys noticed an unwillingness or inability to feel. Without feeling how can humans be fully alive and realise our potential. From this sense of knowing Beuys developed creative, playful and artistic ways groups of people could come back into a felt experience of life. This is where his idea that everyone is an artists comes from. Through this process of creativity, however we practise it in our lives, we create social sculpture. The words alone - social sculpture - have an magical allure to them. The idea that as individuals in a community we shape and influence the world around us and this is our act of creation is beautiful.

Here is Joseph Beuys poem, translated by Leonie Scupin.

Every human is an artist
Let go.
Learn to observe snails.
Plant impossible gardens.
Invite someone dangerous for tea.
Make little signs that say "yes"
and distribute them all over your house.
Become a friend of freedom and insecurity.
Look forward to dreams.
Cry watching movies.
Swing as high as you can with a swing in moonlight.
Cultivate different moods.
Reject to be "responsible".
Do it out of love.
Take a nap.
Pass money on. Do it now. Money will follow.
Believe in magic.
Laugh a lot.
Bath in moonlight.
Dream wild, imaginative dreams.
Draw on walls.
Read every day.
Imagine yourself to be enchanted.
Giggle with children.
Listen to old people talk.
Open yourself, dive in, be free.
Bless yourself.
Let go of fear.
Play with everything.
Entertain the child in you.
You are innocent.
Build a castle out of blankets.
Get wet.
Hug trees.
Write love letters.
 

- Joseph Beuys -