On Storms (And Other Art Necessities)

Today let us talk about storms.
Life is full of them.
So too must art be.

What is a storm?

Nope.

Yesssssss.

So what are they?
According to their rote definition:

a violent disturbance of the atmosphere with strong winds, rain, thunder, lightning, or snow

Source 
(Look Ma! I cited!)
Another
(It's British! So it has more clout!)

Define Clout

Anywho, now that we have had fun, let us get back to the aweful (original).

Storms.
This rather clinical definition does not encompass the majesty of the word nearly so well as its synonyms:

• Tempest
• Whirlwind
• Gale
• Squall

Shakespeare calls one of his latest works The Tempest and for fine reason.
There is something magical and romantic about a tempest.

Sarah Ruhl addresses storms in her 100 Essays I don't have Time to Write.

In it, she describes them beautifully.

A storm comes sweeping through the natural world.

It upsets the balance of everything.

It disrupts stasis.

People go running, things get tied down, animals aren't let out.

They are terrifying things and those are the storms we are aware of.

There are flashfloods and freak weather as well.

There are even documentaries about it:

You know it.

It was really popular not too long ago.

I think because of its attractive host:

Point being, there was a time when we understood storms.

I think it was when people lived primarily out of doors. 

Think about the drama and the art of every great movement in the theatre.

The Greeks

Their Theatre

Looks like this.

The Play

Medea

In Medea, we have a scorned woman, mother of two of Jason's children, a warrior in her own right, who is left for a political marriage. 

In response is the argument of the play. 

The conclusion is that she murders her children and Jason is left to despair. 

• She gets a fair trial
• Judged guilty by a jury of her peers.
• Sentenced to death
• Has a stirring plea on the gallows
• Tragic death

Don't remember that in Medea?

Because it doesn't happen.

Medea is saved by one of the gods and rides away ON A CHARIOT MADE OF DRAGONS.

That seems weird and not in keeping the legal justice system.

Who cares?

It's rad!

But, people make fun of deus ex machina like this.

It may be for as simple a reason as:

We are so used to a logical progression in our art.

A to B, then C logically follows.

The Greeks had no such qualms.

The Deus ex Machina or "god in the machine" stems from the Greek.

The Greeks used to lower deity characters down using a pulley system, hence the expression.

Now, it is synonymous with a plot device to fix an otherwise impossible situation.

It is a disruption of logic.

A storm, if you will.

The Elizabethans

Their Theatre

The Play

The Tempest.

No.
That would be too easy.
Let's see...
Romeo & Juliet.

In this little debacle,

• star-crossed lovers from warring factions marry and bed one another. 
• Romeo murders Juliet's cousin Tybalt after an enforced peace and is banished. 
• Juliet takes a draught of (never named in the play) and falls into a death-like coma. 
• The Friar (purveyor of nameless medicine) sends a letter off to Romeo to assure him of things.
• Romeo doesn't receive the letter and instead rushes off to bury himself with Juliet.

It all turns on a letter.
The letter is the storm.
In almost every production of R&J, the letter will be given to Balthasar, a relatively small role, but a Montague, who will then be played by a woman who is hopelessly in love with Romeo. And that is why the letter is waylaid.
Why?
Because it means saving on casting another actor in the role of Friar John?
No.
Because it makes sense.
And we love for things to make sense.
A to B, then C.
Balthasar loves Romeo, therefore, she doesn't give him the letter and he kills himself.
Like dominoes.

Naturalistic Theatre

Their Theatre

The Play

A Doll's House. 

In it, the protagonist Nora is infantilized by her husband, Torvald, to the point of ludicrousness. 

• Turns out, prior to the events of the play, she took out a loan in her husband's name with her father's surety, but forged their names, committing a crime to save her husband's life. 
• Krogstad, the man who loaned her the money, presses this advantage to ensure that he keeps his position at the bank. Nora, puts off telling her husband. Kristine, her oldest friend and long lost love of Krogstad, offers herself as a peace offering to him, asking for his hand in marriage. 
• In the end, Torvald receives the blackmail letter and the other letter that says Krogstad has reconsidered. 

It is like deus ex machina, except the tragedy ensues. 

• Nora leaves Torvald because she now recognizes that she must. In fact, she spends a two page monologue explaining why this is the best choice for her.

A to B, then C.

She could have just left. 

That would have been a storm.

Often, the Naturalists (Ibsen, Strindberg) are credited with creating what is known as the well-made play. 

A well-made play is exactly that, logical.

It follows the 

A to B, then C structure.

It is a relatively new invention (only a hundred years or so), but we, in American theatre have rigorously adhered to it since.

So much so, that I believe it to be crippling our growth as an art form.

Just look at some of these 

I get it.

There are parallels.

Symmetry.

Almost any contemporary play will be done isolated within a rigid structure.

I mean this literally e.g. a house. 

I mean this structurally e.g. the climactic structure 

Almost any play will take place in of doors or in a single location near in of doors (a backyard)

Gone are the gods.

Gone are the storms.

Gone are the myths.

Now, this is not to imply that there are no plays without these things.

No contemporary examples.

One of my favorite modern shows is Deadwood.

In "Amalgamation and Capital" the characters are negotiating a thorny bit of dealing.

This contract will literally set the town up for peace and prosperity.

Everything is going aright.

When suddenly a wild horse appears and kills the sheriff's only son.

Because of it the deal doesn't get negotiated.

Heated words are exchanged. 

The town grieves.

Things happen.

It is a truly horrific moment and one of the best in cinema.

But, why is it?

I maintain because it is a brilliant storm.

Nobody could have predicted that that would happen.

None of the characters.

Not the audience.

It was a freak, natural accident.

A horse, one of the wildest, most beautiful creatures maimed a child through fear and the act of running.

What a great storm.

So how do we make art like that?

I'm unsure.

My instinct is to say let it happen spontaneously.

But, if it happened spontaneously, then we would have more storms in art.

Trust your gut. 

Go with it.

And in lieu of a gut instinct, try going out of doors more.

Meet a summer storm more.

Get lost more.

Find yourself in a blizzard more.

Best First Day & Hogtied by Children (What is Busking?)

Today, let us talk about busking:

What is busking?
According to Merriam Webster:

A person who entertains in a public space for "donations" [quotations added for ironical effect]

A bit too clinical, but it gets the point across.
I prefer this...

According to Dictionary.com:

1. To make money by singing, dancing, acting, etc in public places in the hopes of "donations"
2. To sell articles/obscene ballads, perform music, or improvise in a theatre queue in the hopes of "donations"
3.  Buscare (Italian): to procure, get, gain; Buscar (Spanish): to look for, to seek
4.  To "cruise as a pirate"

So we perform in the hopes of donations.
According to this definition, we possibly started in theatre queues while people were waiting for their tickets or for the house to open.
Performers would entertain and hope for patronage.
My personal favorite is to cruise as a pirate. This may be the origin of working on cruise lines, entertaining as a profession on ships.

The biggest things these definitions have in common:

1. In Public 
2.  Performance
3. Hope
4. "Donations"

But what is busking really?

I didn't really know until I performed.

Try it!

Public

So what do we mean by public?

Well...public.

It can be literally anywhere.

I have seen performers in almost any setting.
Now, for it to be legal, certain restrictions should be observed.
For example, one of my friends invited me to come with him to New York, spend a day with him on the subway, asking for donations while we perform scenes from contemporary plays for the waiting audience.
This sounded like a lot of fun...

(Excuse me! Ladies and Gentlemen! May I have your attention? Please!) 

Until I rode a subway and realized that that was inappropriate as fuck.
People on subways just want to get home. Or to work.
They are unphased by panhandlers and solicitors.
And what is more, it is illegal to do on public transit.

Now, that being said, you can do it in places of public transit and meeting, like this train station and net a tidy sum if you are particular about what you perform.

(We will come back to this video in just a second)

Performance

What type of performance should busking be?

If you believe the dictionaries, it almost always comes down to music.

But it could be...

Whatever this guy is doing. Zyle? Can you help me out?

Weight sharing

A quartet (with an mother-flipping accordion!)

Circus

Unicycling

Traditional dance

Point being. 

It can be anything.

Anything that you desire your street performance to be.

Busking is flexible enough to cover pretty much all of it.

Hope

I leave this one to people far better equipped than I.

"Donations"

I dislike this word.

Mostly because donations

The act of giving to a charity, especially a sum of money

It equates performance with charity
PERFORMANCE IS NOT CHARITY.
Therefore, why would you donate to one?
PERFORMANCE IS A JOB. IT IS A CAREER.
Plenty of people make wildly successful careers off their performance and their art.

Amanda Palmer survives on people giving to her on a monthly basis.
Check out her Patreon here.

Or Beyonce?
Quick price search of her tickets is wow!
$114-2700
at the time of this article.
Do you consider that a donation to the Beyonce charity?
Some people would argue hers is a religious experience, so the case could be made, but I do not consider it charity.
Beyonce has worked and hustled hard and found overwhelming success.
So no. Not charity.
And not donations.

Patronage

Patronage is 

support given by a patron

What is a patron?

someone who gives support to an institution, individual, or artist.

It doesn't have to be in arts.
The sciences have patrons all of the time.
They often thank them for their kind donations.
And that is fine.
Some people don't have the dislike of the word that I do.
But, I prefer patronage.
The financial support of persons who appreciate what artists do and wish to see them succeed at this crazy little thing called art.

That is the lifeblood of busking.

Patronage.

This is what lets people make careers out of it.

And it all starts with the hat.

Or guitar box.
Those also seem to be super common.

Point being, there is some way to receive patronage.

And the art is what is given back.

And often a thank you.

There is often something intangible about art. 

It is ephemeral, hard to pin down, difficult to figure out.

It is easiest when something tangible exchanges hands. 

A CD, a painting, a sculpture, a sketch.

When these pass to people, they are able to give immediately.

Oh, the CD is five quid? Sure, I'll take two, give one away as a gift.

It becomes a simple, monetary transaction.

I give you goods, you give me money.

But, busking and performance is harder because it is performative.

No goods exchange hands.

So it becomes a little bit scary when your busker looks like this:

See! There is the chalice! Go drop in the dollar bill so he can pay rent this month.

And there is no goods that can exchange hands at the end of the performance (like a CD)

Yeah...

So it becomes just a little bit thornier.

Point being, it is a scary prospect to stop and watch a busker perform.

It can be scarier to donate because it is such a new and wondrous thing.

• This person is asking for money simply for performing?
• She isn't donating to a good cause?
• She isn't starving?
• She isn't telling me about how her mom is in the hospital and if only she could get on the bus?
• What is this remarkable event?

Performance.

We're poor as dirt, but we have dignity.

Well...some of us do.

Point being, I promised I would bring it up and I will.

There is this video.

Meet Joshua Bell.

Playing a Stradivarius. 

In DC Metro.

The Argument

1. He is one of the preeminent musicians of our generation
2. performing six Bach pieces over 45 minutes
3. The equivalent of what people could expect to pay hundreds in a concert hall
4. He performed for FREE 
5. Only 7 people stopped to listen
6. 2 donations of a dollar

THE UNCULTURED SWINE.

I refute this.

Amanda Palmer in her Art of Asking says look at the relationship differently, and from a busking scenario you have to.

Joshua Bell, with all due respect, has illustrated in one act, what I learned from a single performance of busking.

I imagine he learned it too.

What I learned from busking.

You have to earn your audience.

So I am from a classical acting background. 

Which is a bit of an institution. 

The audience, like cattle, are corraled into a seated posture, facing the stage. The lights are dimmed and they are forced to stare at the only illuminated part of the stage. The actors are presented. And we beg the audience not to use cell phones as it may distract from the art. It is a little...prepared. A little...full of rigor...rigor-ful? 

Looks like this:

Now, this is not every theatre, but for the sake of time, let us say that it is.
Classic performance models will almost always adhere to this rigid structure.

Now, busking is a public performance model.
So crowds can come at you from almost any angle.
This can be purely physical (it rarely is)

More likely it will include an emotional aspect (look how happy everyone is on their way to work)

It can even be openly hostile (GET A REAL JOB!)

These can be extreme examples.
But, if you are willing to take a little eyebrow raises, a few heckles, a few shouts you can really command an audience.
Either through silence (mime) or through presence (dance) or through good old fashioned soundscape (barker).
If you have a routine or something remarkable, something people are willing to watch or find genuinely joyful you can turn the tide of the physical/emotional landscape to one of wonder and/or compassion.

If you are telling a story, people may even route for you.

That sounds nice.
But, more commonly you will have to deal with this:

The backs of heads.

Because...

Your relationship is only temporary

As good as you may be, as good as the performance is, you are performing in a public place.

That means that people will come and see you perform.

They will enjoy it for however long they have time.

And then they leave.

This is one of the harder ones to deal with.

The rejection.

Except it isn't. 

Because people do not have time to stay does not mean that they don't have time for you.

And it does not mean that you have to pull them back in.

It isn't a commentary on your performance or your self-worth if people leave.

That is just the nature of the beast.

When you have an audience, keep the audience

Meaning, unless you have a remarkable act, in between the sets is where it gets dangerous for audience attendance. 

Particularly for my performance, which we will get to in just a moment.

See, people's time and money is valuable.

It should be treated as such and

I believe performers do honor that value.

However, when you are setting up, moving between acts, or otherwise crunched for time:

Audience attention wanes.

And it wanes fast. 

So after the dancers would end their fabulous performance and the sound system was getting broken down and I was setting up to go on, people would leave.

That big, healthy audience we had built would disperse. 

I didn't take it personally, but suddenly I realized I would be playing to this:

This scared me.

To no end. 

Because, I have only ever had audiences come see me.

I have never had to drudge up an audience.

New skill set!

This is where Joshua Bell and myself fall flat on our faces:

We have never had to create our own audience. Therefore, we have none of those skills in our artistic toolbox at the ready.

What I did on my first day busking

I did what anybody in my position would do.
I started barking.
I think I did a literal "Hear ye, hear ye" I kind of blacked out for a minute there.
I asked everyone to applaud for the wonderful dancers and then wait a moment while I steeled myself for a presentation of what I called

FIRST DAY.

Why did I call it that?
Because it was my first day.
And I was terrified.
I knew of only one other scenario that was like that.
School.

Doesn't matter what school you go to.
Doesn't matter what age.
First days are awkward.
They are about making friends and making them fast.
So you are willing to do anything to try anything.
So that is what I did. And I decided to perform it.

Give yourself permission to play

Really I needed that more than anything.
I needed time and space to play.
Essentially, permission to fuck up.
Which I did. A lot of.
I entered the playing space and there was a single child sitting in the front row.
I waved.
He waved.
He smiled.
I smiled.
I waved.
He waved.
He smiled.
I smiled.
We did this for a full minute.
Eventually I moved a box that was six sizes bigger than me, and invited him into the playing space.
Him and one or two other children.
They all hopped onto the box.
I had no idea my plan to make friends would go so well!

And then they turned to me.
They were confused.
Nobody had ever done this before.
I had them in the playing space.
But, we weren't friends yet.
Because we weren't playing.

I initiated some mime, but they weren't having it, they thought it was weird.
I asked what they wanted to do.

• They said sit down.
• Go back to their seats.
• Grow up.

This broke my heart.

So I encouraged them to do it.

And as each one left, I gave out a scream like the mortally wounded.

My friends were leaving!

They were amused. Amused and terrified.

They decided to help me down off of my box.

I proved too afraid.

Then, the one most anxious to grow up, the most disillusioned with my performance told me I needed to get over my obsession with this box. 

He literally pried me off of it and stuck me to a wall.

So I was stuck to a wall as he was king of the box.

The others didn't dare to challenge his authority. 

He chased me away from the box when I tried to approach, screaming like a feral tiger as I cowered against the wall.

They tried pulling me away from the wall and after that, I was stuck to the wall.

The King rolled up his sleeves and shouted I shouldn't be so attached to things.

Eventually they tied me to a telephone pole. Literally with my tie.

And then I was rescued by a girl passing by, who brought me back to the box.

And the whole thing repeated over.

That is when I learned

If you can capture the imagination of the children, you've got an audience.

They were a wonderfully attentive audience.

Clever, insightful, ready to keep playing, keep performing.

They were a lot of fun.

It broke my heart to call an end to it all.
To say we had to move on to the next act.

I think they were a little crestfallen too.

There was no big climax.

Nothing to tell us we were done.

I felt like a huge letdown.

But, we had played.

We had had fun.

We were friends.

So that was my first day.

And my first piece. 

Called First Day.

It wasn't a raucous success.

But, it wasn't a failure either.

And the moment that stuck with me was after.

A girl came up to me and asked when I was performing next.

She said she had watched her brother have so much fun and wanted to see me perform again so she could get a turn.

I had a fan.

If you perform truthfully and well, you've got a recurring audience.

And that touched me more than words can say.

For the best book on busking, asking, and the art of, check out Amanda Palmer's

The Art of Asking!

Available wherever they sell books and stuff.

The Shortest Distance Between Abuse & Art (Creating Unsafe Space)

Today we discuss safespace.

Is it achievable?
How?
Why would there be unsafe space?

If you believe along with a generation of young actors:

In order to "get to that place" you need to be willing to do anything!

This idea and those like it are unpacked in greater detail in my post How to Ruin Young Actors

But, we are discussing topical things and nothing is more topical than Profiles Theatre right now in Chicago

Their core tenant:

"Anything for the truth"

And that is where I get off the train.
Because I have lived a theatrical life and I know where that mentality leads.
But, there are others who have not.

If you read this article:
At Profiles Theatre the drama--and abuse--is real
You begin to get a sense for what unsafe space looks like

What unsafe space looks like:

• All power and control consolidated into a single person or group
• Fight choreography is ignored for the sake of reality
• Young actors are "found" and subsequently cast straight out of undergrad 
• These actors don't know what the rules are, what their rights are and so don't know what to ask for or what to enforce
• They are stripped naked, physically and emotionally
• Isolating the cast from the outside world
• Isolating the creative team from management and outside eyes
• Using audience/critical response to justify any and all decisions

To give you a rough idea. 

Any one of these would be censurable and dangerous on their own.

Working in conjunction creates one of the most dangerous spaces of which I have ever heard.

This is terrifying. 

Unfortunately, it is not all that uncommon.

Personally, I have never had the benefit of critical success. 

My Experiences with Abuse in the Theatre

Once upon a time I was a learning artist and I...

1. Had a teacher tell me it was better for me to close my mouth and listen than ask clarifying questions
2. Had an instructor tell me to always take the money, no matter the work, always money
3. Had an instructor solicit an apology for taking a professional audition day in my senior year
4. Had a director solicit hugs and kisses from an ENTIRE CAST after closing because she was lonely and thought it good because we are all family (I suffer feelings of anxiety and dread from unwanted physical touch and was forced to touch one of my abusers in a loving way)
5. Had a director tell me to walk upstage and do blocking that was patently ridiculous, and in the middle of trying, shouted down for five minutes about how "We shouldn't TRY TO SHOW HER it was wrong, she wanted to see it and SHE would TELL US if it was wrong"
6. Had a director whisper stage direction to other actors, which resulted in an actress attempting to kiss me without my knowledge or permission, which I avoided by inserting a book between our faces, to which the actress responded that was really embarrassing for her
7. Had a teacher put a gay student in a scene where he received a blowjob from a girl; he felt uncomfortable even simulating it, to which the teacher responded that it was necessary for the scene and that she supposed a handjob would be okay...he quit acting after that showcase
8. Had a teacher give us emotionally dangerous scene work, gave each of us physically contradicting objectives (get out of the closet vs. keep her in the closet) then washed her hands of all responsibility when actors got hurt because that was the scene and what they set up
9. Had a teacher whose idea of physical improv was to turn out the lights and play loud music and have whatever happen happen to which one of my friends was kicked in the face by an actor doing cartwheels (the improvisation continued for an additional hour after that)
10. Had a teacher accuse my friend who is on the autism spectrum of speaking like a Chinese person, then proceeded to make fun of his characterization

I knew what was happening and I never stood up to my abusers because almost universally they were directors and teachers. 

Some both.

One was director, teacher, and employer.

Solely responsible for my entire degree and education.

So many of these are taken directly from school.

I don't blame the institution.

I received wonderful training in spite of the abuse that I received at the hands of artists who were more interested in their own well being or their own careers than that of their students.

And the worst wasn't even when I was being abused, but the feeling of dread at seeing another being abused and not standing up for them.

Because it wasn't happening to me.

We all said it was fine.

We all said we could handle the criticism, the pressure.

Why?

For a fucking slip of paper!

It was wrong of all of us.

None of us....none of us...not even the teachers...deserved to go through that experience.

Because it made us, all of us, worse in some way.

One of my dearest friends broke my heart when he said:

"She made me question if I was a good actor. I don't like it, but she did that to me. There was a time in my senior year where I thought, maybe I'm no good at this, maybe she is right. And I can't ever get that back. She took something from me and even now I recognize it's all bullshit, but she made me question and I'll never forgive her for it."

That isn't a direct quote.
It is an impression of an impression.
But, it captures the idea of a thing.
We all lose something in those dangerous places.
The surety we once had, the safety we always felt when we first started acting in our garages or on our front lawns for our parents or neighbors.

The saddest part is I am a hetero, white, cis male and all of this happened to me.
I recognized that I was privileged in the art for that.
And I was still abused.
I can only imagine what anyone else who deviated from that must have gone through

So what can we do about it?

Create Safe Space

How?

"We take care care of each other"

That is my one rule.
You can make the space as dangerous as the artists would like, but through the lens of taking care of each other.
We do not actually hurt one another; we simulate violence

• Follow the fight choreography

Do not consolidate power into a single individual no matter how much you trust them or think you trust them

•  Recognize that everyone is equal in the creative process
• Encourage ensemble work, play games where everyone makes decisions/helps the group

Do not enter into an insular work space without understanding your rights

• Educate younger artists on why things work the way they do
• Explain rituals and why they are effective
• Educate younger artists on their rights and the structures of the organization, where should they go if they have concerns?

Appreciate that everyone has different artistic processes

• Find out what makes other artists tick
• Get curious about the fundamental artistic process and encourage others to do the same
• It enhances yours and allows you to communicate with others more effectively

Do not abuse the power of authority

• Ethos is a powerful argumentative case in rhetoric, but it is also severely limited to trusting someone's past work
• In theatre, there is no past work, just what you can do inside of the room
• Rely on your past experiences, but realize that none of us can see them
• Never, never, never, never, never use "Just trust me" It is lazy and dangerous

These are some of the ideas that I have run across in my time as an artist and a teacher.

But, they all stem from my one rule:

We take care of each other

That is the most important thing.
We can change the work space accordingly and make sure that it is still safe.
Some people require more physical safety, others more emotional.
That is all okay, it depends on the ensemble.
But, at heart, we are taking care of each other's artistic needs and hopefully in the process, helping artists realize they do not need to be abused in order to make great art.

You do not deserve to be abused

We take care of each other 

Are we Human (Or Are we Dancers? Can't we be both?)

Today, let us discuss dance.

Classically, I have associated dance with...well classical dance:

Or maybe this

But, on May 28, I was privileged enough to see Artlab J's gala event at the Detroit Institue of the Arts.

It was an amazing evening filled with dance and wonder and surprises.
One of the biggest was the education programs coming out to dance.
See, I have this bias.
I think dancers look like this:

Young, virile, people who are able to control every aspect of their body.
And that is definitely SOME dancers.

The educational program dealt with non-traditional or learning dancers.
So there were dancers that looked like this:

Kids. They were effectively children. But, they were dancing!
Dare I say dancers?

Perhaps the most moving piece of the night was the elderly women's education program.
Dancers that looked like this:

It was amazingly difficult to find an image for dancers of this age group.

Not surprising, but deeply frustrating.
For you see, that is what was so incredible about this age group in particular.
The women, aged 30-70+ were dancing!
Dancing together exploring themes like growing old, their bodies changing, embracing their ability to still move even as they wore down over the course of their lives and the performance.

I would say it was the most moving piece of the night.
And in that moment I realized one of our biggest problems with the art.
One of the most pervasive quotes I have run across with regards to acting:

"It takes twenty years to become an actor [/artist]"

-Stanislavki/Meisner/Everyone

I have been debating what exactly this means.
I'm still unsure.
But, I know it has created an expectation in me that actors are not young.
I know that.
And dancers mean ballet, which means they cannot be old.
SO art happens in this weird middle place in life where you are old enough to have skill and technique and young enough to still make the best art.

These women and this particular dance completely shattered that expectation.
Because what they were doing was undoubtedly art.
It may not have been the most physically deft dance.
It may not have been the most polished piece of the night.
But, it was profound all the same because it was difficult, because they were struggling with something, grappling with ideas bigger than themselves, and in territory that was absolutely relevant to their and our experience right then right there.
It was incredible.

And it sent me off down this reverie

Questions for Art (I mean that literally)

• Are young children artists even though they don't know better?
• Is art only a craft, meaning a created event?
• How old/trained must you be in order to create that art?
• If it is true and children are artists and we grow out of it, can we grow back into it?
• When is art art?
• How do we determine what/when is art?