Why Bother With Principles?

Nothing exempts me from having to face myself. Nothing. No sister, brother, father, mother, lover, friend, race, class, gender, choice of mate, change in my pocket, domicile, lifestyle, life view, my past, present, future. Nothing.

Nothing exempts me from having to face myself is the principle that drives all the other principles and is the basis of how we approach our trainings.

Are we artists to prove our worth, to seek and gain admiration, notoriety, approval, or superiority? Perhaps these flattering aspects of the practice of artistry will come to us, but they are not why we bother with all the agonies, joys and discipline of artistic creation.

Some say we are called to be artists. We can talk for hours about whether that is true or not. And indeed, even if it is true that we are among those who answer a calling, does our calling require that we become famous or recognized for the result of that calling? Well, I leave that up to you to answer.

In my experience working with artists of all types, I’d say, calling or not, our drive to express ourselves artistically is a simple matter of survival in this wild and confusing world. To require that fame, fortune, or recognition must be present in order to qualify as an artist seems to me to be a cruel and heartless condemnation of the multitude of artists who practice artistry for pleasure, as a search for truth, as images for their lives, as an outlet for conscience, as a means to maintain sanity.

So what does all this have to do with the Principles?

Artists are inhabitants of every corner, mainstream, and landscape of our earth. In some way, unique to our lives, each of us receives our training. Each of us in various capacities harbors a talent which, in some cases, is called out and honed into a skill and in other cases remains untrained, unarticulated, and unskilled.

As I understand them, the Principles are guides, mentors, moderators, and above all measures of our integrity.

They are also concepts which when followed allow us to navigate safely in strange or yet to be routinized imagery or physical expression. In my common day-to-day life as well as in my work life, the principles serve as companions, and provide parameters when my work or life takes on trance-like qualities.