Sustaining a Life as an Artist

I'm trying to figure out how to write this blogpost about a panel I went to last weekend.  You could read about it on my writer-friend Nicole's blog.  She was the who told me about it. 

It was at the CIIS (California Institute of Integral Studies) in San Francisco.  The panel included artists, writers and dancers discussing "Sustaining a Life as an Artist," which has been on my mind a lot as I struggle to make ends meet this year.  I also discovered a program there called Creative Inquiry, Interdisciplinary Studies.  Wow!  A program designed for artists who have more than one focus - dancer/writer, actor/sculptor, taiko player/artist?

I like to start my blogs with a picture, my picture usually drives the words.  But here I have a jumbled mess of ideas all intersecting and spinning off in different directions. 

One thing stood out.  I wish I could remember who said this:

"What would it mean if we could all let go of the notion of 'If only we all did ..." - then maybe we would truly embracing diversity."

This was the first time I had heard people talking about artists living hybrid lives ("more often than not, the artist assumes multiple roles as she builds a life for herself...").  The past years I've been struggling so hard to define myself, narrow it down, find the words to say exactly what it is that I do.  But what became clear is that what I "do" is ART, both through taiko and visual art.  And that could be enough definition for me.  

Someone else said this:  "Language can be both a barrier, or a swinging door to direct experience." What I loved about this day, being surrounded by artists, is that I could see how the language being exchanged in the room was the swinging door to possibility and ideas...  And not necessarily a constant struggle to define everything for fear of being misunderstood/feeling of progress/efficiency - which is so much of my regular life.