On Demand

When artists express their experiences, hurts, triumphs, ecstasy, pain, and loss, it moves people who at some time in their lives have experienced, are experiencing, and will experience similar circumstances.

When expressed at the time of experience, the product is in its most powerful emotionally because it tells of the actual feelings as they come, as they impact the artist. It's a live feed straight to the heart.

However, when the experience has passed and healing has happened or time has softened and/or buried the experience, the artists' expression changes. They now write of new ones or express the past in retrospect, which emotionally, is not as powerful. It has however, other appeals and pluses such as its capability to teach.

A problem arises when the expectation of viewers, listeners, readers, and the like, demand the same sort of expression that artist was able to express at the time of experience. The audience wants the same live-feed again, a logically improbable scenario.

The artist struggling and wanting to please, may resort to denying the healing, or recreating the past, knowing their expression is at its zenith with the live-feed.

As receivers, we are meant to not only appreciate the expression as it came, but also appreciate the change and progress of the artist. We should not demand the identical expression over and over. We should not pressure the artist to deny their healing and to "scratch the scab".

The beauty of art as an expression of the human condition is that there will always be new artists and new expressions of the ever-similar human condition. As receivers, there are always new expressions to discover. This healthy cycle can only add to the variety, freshness, and growth, of the art ecosystem.

So grow with your artist. Apart of together, just grow. And go forward with God.

penned 09.2008