An “Artist Intensive”
For eight years I had been leading artists in the Los Angeles, California (USA), Region, but something had stalled. We couldn’t gain traction with each other, with building artists’ liberation, or with working on our early hurts related to being artists.
I decided to try something different: an “Artist Intensive”—a six-week weekly class focused only on artists’ liberation. I sent an e-mail about it to the artists in the Region, and all of them responded that they loved the idea and wanted to participate. Some of them hadn’t been able to make [attend] the artists’ support group in years. Others had never been to an artists’ support group.
The following is a small sample of what we covered in the classes:
Inside each of us is the gift of our creativity. It’s the heart of who we are. It’s the joy of who we are. Most people don’t ever open the gift, or they leave it unattended. All of us working together on art and creativity is a huge victory in a society that does its best to keep people small.
Harvey (Jackins) loved and backed [supported] artists. He believed in artists and knew we were at the forefront of moving the culture forward. He also backed artists as working-class people.
We used the Artists’ Commitment, which gets to the heart of artists’ liberation:
I promise to always remember my power, love, and intelligence as an artist, and the vital role that artists have played in every culture and time. I will never again invalidate any artist, including myself, or any work of art, but rather ally myself with all artists to end our economic oppression, and enthusiastically encourage the creativity of every human.
We worked on five key themes: joy, money, “mental health” oppression, building a creative family (of allies, inside and outside of RC), and our next steps and largest visions.
Joy: Everyone went to how they had loved to be creative as a young person and what it had felt like to use their minds in that way. Most also discharged on how art had been taken from them by some kind of humiliation or how they hadn’t felt like they could do art because of racism, classism, sexism, or anti-Semitism.
Money: This is where so many artists get divided from each other. Artists’ oppression tells us that we aren’t legitimate artists unless we make money from our art. Of course this is not true. One artist in the class wasn’t getting paid for her brilliant writing. She discharged on early hurts and messages about getting paid as an artist, and two weeks later she received the compensation she asked for. Another was making his living from his art, and a lot of terror came up when he considered never again making money from that work. He wanted to devote more time to a different art form—one that wouldn’t produce income but instead much joy. Early terror about success and money came screaming to the surface.
“Mental health” oppression: I said, “Life is big and society is small. There are no limits on how much fun you can have.” Artists’ creations often show feelings or thoughts that many folks keep hidden. Therefore artists are often targets of the “mental health” system. Many of us have been told that we are “special,” and the flip side of “special” is “crazy.”
Building a creative family: The bigger our support system and “creative family,” the “bigger” we can go as artists. After twenty-five years of being a working artist, the best thing about my life is the relationships I have formed with other artists and with allies. I said that we have a creative family with us right here in this Community. Right now! And that it is permanent and real.
Next steps and largest visions: I asked people, “If you could do whatever you want as an artist, what would you do?” Their visions varied in wonderful ways. No two were the same. There was much discharge as they fought for their visions and voices.
We had many victories as a result of our being together in this short, intense way. Most important, we got much closer. We learned more about each other in those six weeks than ever before. We have a “gang” now and check in regularly about art. We are committed to each other in a whole new way. And our art continues—even bolder and bigger than it was before!
East Los Angeles, California, USA
(Present Time 192, July 2018)