COMMENTARY: We Are All Artists

Claudia

In late June, the Cuyahoga County Council voted to place the renewal of the cigarette tax for the arts on the November ballot. Originally passed in 2006, the 10-year, 30-cents-a-pack levy is set to expire next year. The renewal campaign, the Arts and Culture Action Committee, has officially launched. Opposition has surfaced, complaining that this is a tax on some of the region’s poorest citizens to fund institutions for the elite. That viewpoint ignores how the arts impact every aspect of life in northeast Ohio for people of all ages, all races and all socio-economic levels, arts and non-artists alike. CoolCleveland will be talking in the next several months about how the arts transform our lives and make the region a better place to live. Here’s a personal take from CC writer Claudia Taller.

When was the last time you colored in a coloring book? Played the piano? Wrote a poem? Came up with a really cool idea at your workplace? Created a fun party? Planned a beautiful evening of music and art at a gallery with good food?

One way to get excited about possibilities is to take an Artist’s Date, a several-hour fun time just by yourself (and one of the cornerstones of Julia Cameron’s famous book about creativity and spirituality, The Artist’s Way.) I took one today, and guess what? I want to do it all the time.

What did I do? I started with a slow drive down Lake Road on a warm summer-like day and arrived at Puma Yoga in Lakewood just as Melissa Russo was doing breath work and core-strengthening. After 75 minutes, that ended with “happy baby pose” and a great Om followed by a humble Namaste ending. I drove out to the Cleveland Museum of Art to meet a friend and walk around University Circle before experiencing the art of West Africa known as Senufo. Then I stopped in at Loganberry Books to drop off books for Author Alley and at the Mayfair Fine Art Fair in Berea. I was gone for over six hours and came back home ready to plant in the garden and sort through summer clothes.

Maybe you don’t know where to start. Why not start at a farmer’s market to inspire your cooking or select fresh and local produce for the next gathering at your house? The first one in Cleveland may have been North Union at Shaker Square, a good place to start. They’re so abundant today that we need to choose wisely. Judging North Union’s Crocker Park offerings, I can say that they do a good job of bringing quality and variety together in one place. But I also need to make a pitch for the farmers and food artisans in the Cuyahoga Valley whose Countryside Farmers’ Market at Howe Meadow in Peninsula showcases local food.

Or a gallery? I’ve spent time in the galleries of BAYyarts in Huntington Reservation in Bay Village and the Beck Center in Lakewood and find the artists to be serious and uninhibited, pushing the limits of what art is. And in Ohio City, across the street from an urban farm where chickens and roosters wander, there’s Ohio City Glass, where you can look at and purchase hand-blown glass or take a class to make it yourself. Visit galleries by neighborhood — Ohio City, Detroit-Shoreway, Larchmere and Collinwood, to name a few.

Or a concert? Some of the more interesting musical experiences are at places other than the major concert venues. Not only will you jazz-rock and dance at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s summer solstice, but the small-space concerts at Transformer Station are outstanding and exotic. Cain Park, House of Blues, Nightown and the Grog Shop are intimate places to hear music—you won’t find The Stones, but you may find Jean Luc Ponty. Don’t forget the outdoor concerts this summer, like Wade Oval Wednesdays at University Circle.

Or a class? BAYarts offers creative writing, zentangle, photography, figure drawing, oil painting, pottery wheel throwing and wire-wrapping jewelry classes. Artists Uncork’d offers acrylic painting classes while drinking wine. The Cleveland Museum of Art and Beck Center have great art classes. Find cooking, music, theater, dance and gardening classes all over northeast Ohio.

Or get a book? I recently heard an interview with Johanna Basford, who’s a famous coloring book creator, on WCPN/NPR. Her Secret Garden, an Inky Treasure Hunt and Colouring Book, is a best-selling book and those who are coloring in it are not children, they’re adults in need of a reprieve, an escape, a creative adventure into color and composition within structure. I was so impressed, I bought a copy of the book and when I opened the package at Fat Heads, our neighborhood pub, I was enchanted, and still am.

Maybe you don’t believe you’re an artist. So start slow. Explore. Taste. Move. Create. And find out how experiencing creativity enhances all parts of your life, including the stories you read to your kids at night and how you do PowerPoint presentations at the office. When I gave myself permission to be creative, I started writing. After I started writing, I began to cook like a gourmet. After I started cooking, I started leading creativity retreats. And now I create art. Life just gets better for it.

Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia Taller has written four books and her art will be displayed at Bratenahl Place this summer. Once upon a time, a managing partner at a law firm where she worked gave her credit for being a gourmet cook, and The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron showed her that she’s an artist, no matter what her other lifetime responsibilities are. Find her at http://claudiajtaller.com/.  

 

 

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