The Primal Artist

Forget for a moment all you thought you knew about "art".

Let it all simply slide away, take a deep breath and let your mind fall back, right back through the times of you, the times of your ancestors, the times of men, all the way back and back and back through history until we arrive ...

We arrive at a shallow river bed, and here, we see the monkey men, our ancestors and they are here and real, and we are here because this is a special time, a moment where the worlds changed, a moment where everything changed for everyone who came after on this planet, plants and animals and sentients alike ...

A monkey being is drinking from the shallow river bed.

Its hand has made a line in the golden mud, quite by accident.

It stares, it looks, and then ...

It reaches out and places a second line beneath the first.

This is the moment that art was born.

This is the moment when art becomes; when a sentient being changes the world by the touch of their hand, with will and with intention.

This moment is re-lived over and over again in humans and in humanoids; in little children from all races, living under any condition, at any time for a million years or more - a sentient being discovering that they have the power to change the world, to make a mark in the sands of time ...

The ability to create art, to make your mark, is in truth, quite indescribable in its power, in its magnificence, in the repercussions it has for them, for us, for all the world, for everything we touch.

It is a birthright of every human being who ever walked the earth, who ever touched, and saw, and felt, and thought.

There is a primal artist inside every one.

Long before the fire, we made symbols.

And that is the true heart of art.

Fashions and laws, thinking this and that, entrainments and prejudices, all of that is just a disturbance, something that gets between a sentient being - you, and me, and all of them - and that world upon which we leave our marks in the sands of time.

When we reconnect simply and honestly with the primal artist, the first artist who ever was, and whose memorance we carry inside our very structures, we become free.

We become free to step into a true, personal interaction with the Universe itself.

We get to ask our questions, and paint and sculpt and sing and dance the answers.

We enter into a dance that is a life long joy and fascination; a dance which humbles, and a dance which enlightens, lifts us up and lets us touch a fraction of what we really are when all is said and done.

True art can never be confined to museums and galleries.

True art is entirely independent of critics, craft or training; it is always unique, it belongs to the artist absolute.

True art arises from the direct interaction between a sentient human being and the worlds they live in.

To experience true art for yourself is YOUR birthright.

It is mine.

And it is a gift that should never be taken for granted, should never be underestimated, and should be celebrated not just with great works of art, but with the lives the artists lead and which are filled with wonder, joy and gratitude.

Silvia Hartmann

The Primal Artist 2010