Dueling Personas

Within every person there are many personas. I think indeed that we as humans aren't really one person, but rather a composite of personalities, each with their own agendas, vying for attention, sometimes working with each other but other times at odds. 

Through circumstance (by being joined in one brain and body) we can this be engaged in a messy affair of trade-offs, sacrifices and sometimes even outright wars and rebellions within ourselves.

This is in part because at times it feels as if the roles placed upon us give us little choice - father, mother, employee, son, daughter, sibling, as well as constrictions of gender, age, race, social status, religion and nationality, All these roles carry a certain weight and responsibility that we drag around daily. Add the alchemists brew of emotions that we have to contend with that color or intellectual lens - love, hate, jealousy, fear, curiosity, and more.- It's no wonder we are being pulled in different directions from the inside out.

It is important however  to understand that our inner squabbles are natural and even engender a healthy cathartic from the strain; It lends a beautiful dynamic.to our humanity, On the other hand, we want this tension to propel us through greater creativity, and we must learn to cultivate teaching the various factions of our self to get out of each others way when appropriate. We should if we want to get anything meaningful, to  consistently work toward shepherding ourselves to a greater industry, not a lesser indolence. Our playfulness that allows us to create has to roam into more fun pastures, yes, but we are also business people. We have also face deadlines, for better or worse. When I think about it though, deadlines are usually a creative galvanizing machine. Fretting away days with no consequence usually gets little finished.

​Our creativity I believe is tied to the parts within us, We have all of these sometimes disparate thoughts and emotions, being tied together by mere threads of our moral fiber and work ethic. In the more contemplative times of our days and nights, we wonder at what we have been, are, and will be.  Since the creators within us are storytellers (be it through acting, or painting or music) we strive to convey our stories, or even the stories of others with our own personal stamp on them.  We do this be chronicling these stories in word, brush, voice or dance. In our stories, we assume aspects of ourselves even when we are playing other characters,

Somehow, as artists, we are striving mightily by projecting aspects of our personality into the world outside ourselves to make the jump from mere artifice into something that is "real". This "realness" is validated when our personal work touches the hearts and minds of others with our creations. If successful, we make an emotional and intellectual connection, and we truly feel an understanding between people, and they can understand us. , between artist and their patrons. It this understanding leads to an empathy for all parties involved..

We reach out too, because even with all our aspects within ourselves, it it still a solitary and sometimes lonely place of psychic echoes in a great hall..  We know deep down no matter how differentiated, our personality aspects know each other quite well. A fair amount of introspection within ourselves reveals their parlour tricks to each other.  Thus, reaching out of ourselves into the world around us provides a catalyst for creative growth and outreach. Our personal dreams and philosophies can and should be sent out to resonate with others in some way or fashion,. At it's basic level, it doesn't  always matter, that it well received or not. The message from artist to viewer/listener just needs to be received.

I do believe most artists of course want their work to be well received and validated, since the most powerful works of art are part of the person that created and shaped them. Validating our work validates us to our community.  Validation is important to both the artist and the patron. An artist feels the admiration of others, and the patron feels like they are witnessing something, an in some way is charged emotionally by it. In this way, they become a part of it, a part of the arts personality, and the artistic experience that is shared between the artist and their viewers (even with each other). In such a way, all our personas (both internal and external, the artists inside and the viewers outside), get to briefly join in the abundance of the creative experience.

In the end, it's not just healthy to acknowledge these aspects of our personas, it's our responsibility to show our various aspects to the world, to show ourselves at our greatest and most sublime abilities. To show ourselves as the multi-faceted humans that we are, and to validate and acknowledge  that same humanity in others.