David Parker writes about the creative process and his dog, Grace.
...I think that the way art makes change is one consciousness at a time. It forces us to stop our usual patterns of processing information sometimes through causing us confusion, sometimes through pointing us to pleasure. It is through arguing for the inherent worth of a life lived with confusion or pleasure that art makes us re-think the world we live in. Because in those moments we are revealed to ourselves and others without pretense. We want those moments but we fear them as well, so we tame them, we cloak them in formulas and focus our attention on less threatening things like income levels and social squabbles. So much for change. Our real job is to be the guardians and cultivators of those moments where ever we find them....
...However, in its place, I would like to count as necessary to art making those things that guilt proposes to negate; rest, sustenance (culinary, intellectual, spiritual), space, time, comfort, ease, attention, health, conversation, movement, freedom (from "should", from over analysis, to change one's mind ((multiple times, if necessary)), to let something brew, to be fiercely obsessive or to be unconcerned), and, perhaps the first thing that vaporizes when the call of guilt sounds its menacing horn: Pleasure....
...It's the gestation period for a dance, and its actual life in front of any audience, that seems out of whack. It disappears way too quickly. How can I facilitate a process that maximizes interactions between me and audiences both in the performer/viewer relationship, and in the relationship of peers talking about performance and the making of meaning?
...Therein lies my problem--- my fear that words have predominated culturally for so long---more valued, neater, easier to parse and disseminate and show their heavy hand in the world. How do we teach others how to live more fully in their bodies? By using words?—or does this work against its purpose?
... I now have a different relationship with the notion of rehearsal AS a practice. Although there is usually a presentation to prepare for and something to create, I think the “practice” element of a rehearsal should encompass these lofty intellectual and humanistic aims I held so dear when I was younger, and still do. If we look to art to inspire us to a greater humanity, in fact elevate us, what as artists should we be practicing during rehearsal? How can we truly create a practice out of rehearsal and what are we practicing?
...there is a particular phenomenon that occurs when the show is over. An accurate name might be the POOF! effect. After exorbitant amounts of work, the performances finally come and then POOF! , it all disappears. It is the most amazing and disturbing magic act ever. It is acutely unsettling to some inner compass of mine that has been pointing and guiding toward CREATE and DANCE and ART. Then POOF! and I am alone in the middle of a vast desert with the faint echoes...
One of our primary goals at Mount Tremper Arts is to facilitate dialogue between artists and audience members and also between artists and artists (both performing and visual arts). We want to talk about how and why art is made, how it is sustained....