letters to vivian.

At some point in your life, you begin to realize that you might be experiencing something that you want to share. You also realize that nothing in life is new, nothing you go through is completely original. Since the beginning of time, there has been love, heartbreak, and everything that comes along with relationships between humans. Knowing this can be both incredibly daunting and at the same time incredibly refreshing. It just becomes a matter of how you express your experiences.

Art, as it stands, is both a completely selfish, and a somewhat capitalistic concept. You want the freedom to create and to express yourself in the most private of settings, but you want to be known, for art is meant to be experienced! It is selfish in the best and the worst of ways! We can outlet our emotions for ourselves, and also to show these emotions to others. and rather than negatively associating fame and recognition for our work, it is important to realize that in some ways, it can benefit those around us!

Life experience can never be given to us, it cannot be inherited, or explained, we can only be left to learn from everything we go through in our own ways. But how refreshing it is to find that those around us have experience our pain! And how inspiring it is to hear their experiences!

Henry darger, a reclusive american artist and writer wrote a 15000+ page manuscript documenting his "vivian girls" and their experiences as empresses among a tragic war. The posthumous discovery of his illustrations reveal a wealth of "outsider art" created by a man who was never trained, yet incredibly talented; one who worked at his art and loved his characters as though they were his dearest friends.

His art is breathtaking, his intuitive use of color and composition reveal a man, who, though alone most of his life with only a handful of friends around, created solely for himself. His life, though long, tedious, and almost uneventful as far as the modern person is concerned, was full of beauty and his mind, unaltered by the internet and modern constrictions, allowed him to freely create. Alone.

So, I've come to believe that nothing goes into the ether. Though you may write letters, save his notes, or create art in response to something, it never goes unnoticed. there must be a thousand henry darger's in the world we have not yet discovered. What you do for yourself can remain anonymous, but it will never remain affect-less. I guess, the point of all of this, is, tell your stories! And listen when those around you are willing to divulge. If not for your hypothetical children, then for those who fix your sink when you're too old to do it yourself.



99 Letters