...and that's kinda what I got last night. Made a rare foray into the city for the First Person Arts Salon at the Arts Bank on Broad St. (I parked across from this, the Broad Street Ministry).
I'll be one of the featured artists next month at the salon, so I wanted to be sure to go check out the space and how the event was run. It is a very cool setting...intimate room with a true salon encouraged--questions are taken from the audience after each artist presents their work. There were memoir poets, a former convict who now works for the Mural Arts Program in several different prisons (very inspirational woman), an artist named Jose Cedillo who works using a method called Bricolage, and a documentary film about technology and media.
Jose Cedillo was my favorite. Not only were his pieces magnificently beautiful, but hearing him talk about the philosophy behind Bricolage was so moving. "There are no mistakes"--artists use discarded items, whatever they have on hand, and the creation is organic with no plans, sketches, or aims.
The evening proved to be a beautiful reminder that life, too, is organic and that even when we make plans, sketches, or aims, it doesn't always go in the way we want. To believe "there are no mistakes" is to accept things as they come. Here was a reminder to not only accept, but to create something beautiful out of what's available.
