conversation is an engine

Many communicators I know have some art in progress on the side. One paints with oils. Another writes science fiction. Another makes masks. Copywriters who sketch and art directors who write. It is a human thing, this urge to make sense of the world. Certainly it is an integrating impulse—when we take steps to portray the world as we understand it, in whatever medium we choose, the very effort has the effect of enlarging our vision. Even if no one ever sees the painting or reads the novel or puts on the mask, we have still accomplished something. We’ve understood more—maybe we’ve become more human—plus we’ve contributed to culture. We’ve left some integrating artifact behind.

But those acts of creation are not content to idle as we go off to work. They don’t sit quietly on the easel while we earn our bread. They pursue us and our work. Those acts of creation whisper vivid colors and paint sounds as we type. They interrupt with scenes of conflict and resolution projected momentarily over the spreadsheet before us. Our acts of creation hint at a rich interior life that refuses to live in compartments, refuses to walk the same path again and again, and thinks it can make specific sense of a world of input. It is part of bringing our whole self to our work.

What does your art say to your work?

###