Loving Monsters

This may not seem much related to polymer or art, but I did find this on the site of an artist who works with polymer among many other things. Æ(Alexis) Pierre-Louis lives in Seattle and creates jewelry, paintings, sculpture, installations, video poetry, and writings. I discovered Alexis through a post on Daily Art Muse (which you should check out for great artistic inspiration) and although I do like the rings shown in this post, it was the story on her blog page (no longer being updated) that really got to me:

When Alexis was a little girl, she was afraid of a lot of things, especially the dark. After a bedtime story, her father would kiss her on the forehead and turn off the light. Within minutes she’d be howling and would dive into her parents’ bed for comfort. Naturally this situation could not last long. One day, instead of her usual bedtime story, Alexis’s father told her this,

Imagine how small and dull our lives would be if we allowed ourselves to be ruled by fear. Very small indeed. It’s a big, scary world out there, sometimes people can be cruel, and circumstances can seem larger than our imagination so that our dreams become nightmares filled with big, scary monsters. It’s natural to be afraid sometimes; the trick is not to become stuck in fear, and there is only one cure for that: love. Fear is like a big, scary monster. Love kills all the monsters. So the next time you see a monster, give him some milk and cookies, tuck him into bed, tell him a bedtime story, give him a kiss on the forehead, and say ‘I love you’, and watch your monster turn into your friend.

Fear is part of our lives. Maybe more so as artists because we face an unknown every time we sit down to our studio table. What will we make? How will it turn out? Will I succeed in creating what I envision? Will it be good enough? These fears can cause us to freeze up. But what or who are we really afraid of?

We are afraid of ourselves … afraid of our abilities and inabilities, of how we will deal with being judged be it by others or by our own person. So, I think Alexis’ father’s idea is great. When you are afraid, give your monster — yourself — some milk and cookies and say “I love you.” And then go and play with your clay.