The Canvas of Your Life

The Canvas of Your Life

In a recent interview I ran across, Jewel stated that she wants her life to be her best work of art. The image that came to mind after I thought about this awhile was that of my life as one giant canvas, and what that might mean. It’s something that brings up a lot of questions, for instance what is and how do you visualize the canvas of your life?

Old Enough to Belong to AARP?

Recently, I was flipping through the various back issues of magazines stacked up and waiting for me in Santa Fe. One I really enjoy is the AARP magazine. I don’t know why, but I’m always surprised how many interesting and useful things I find in there. Part of that, I guess, comes from the fact that I’m not retired. I also always feel oh-so-slightly shocked that I’m even old enough to belong to AARP. However, a quick check told me that anyone older than eighteen can join. Hmm…I don’t know any retired 18-year-olds, do you?

Sure enough, it was in one of the AARP magazines where I found the interview with Jewel. That interview is here. As I said above, she had something really interesting to say about how she views her life. She commented on the fact that, of all the things she creates, she wants her life itself to “be [her] best work of art.” This got me thinking. Anything we create, whatever it might be, is obviously a type of canvas, regardless of the actual form it takes. But what about we, the creators ourselves, viewing our very existences as canvases?

An Agglomeration of Our Experiences

What this idea really involves, in my mind, is thinking about our lives as an agglomeration of our experiences, rather than just discrete episodes or periods (Swifties would say eras). How often, though, do we really ever do this? Reflecting on how we’ve spent our time up to this point is not something that comes naturally for most people, I would wager. What if we spent some time each day actively thinking about how what we’re doing is adding to this massive canvas, one which we can take a step back from and revisit like any other work of art? It’s daunting, but maybe it doesn’t have to be.

In the article, Jewel voiced her intention to “sculpt my humanity into something that will please me at the end of my life.” She has obviously given the collection of experiences that makes up her life plenty of thought, as well as pondered how she wants her life, and the canvas of it, to be. What struck me the most in that sentence, aside from the intention and awareness she projects, is those two words: please me. She makes no attempt to justify or defend her choices. They just are. Each choice moves her in that direction of a gratifying creation she can view as a whole. What a concept!

PLEASE ME

In order to follow Jewel’s example, we can ask a simple question: Does it please me? If what you’re doing with your life, no matter the “section” of the canvas you’re creating now, is something that pleases you, then the totality of your life, your canvas, when viewed from a distance, will naturally be pleasing. It’s obvious that you can’t spend every second of every day walking around doing only things that please you, but I do think it’s possible to make a conscious effort to work towards that each day, so that, when the canvas of your life is complete, it is satisfying, to you.

Visualize Your Canvas

Have you ever thought about your life as a work of art? How do you visualize your canvas? Do you see it as starting in the center, experiences layering outwards towards the edges, like a flower blooming? Or is it a painting that starts at one corner of the canvas, spreading out from that? What about style? Is the canvas of your life like a work by Renoir, all flowing lines and pastels? Sturdier, with subdued colors? How about a random assortment of bright colors splashed about in various spots? Maybe hyperrealistic, almost like a photo? Regardless of how you imagine it, when you step back and view the canvas of your life, does it please you?

Shifting Gears – Train to Busan

Shifting gears completely, since who needs to spend all their time thinking about the big issues in life, let’s talk about an excellent horror flick which you might just be able to squeeze in this Halloween. Train to Busan, a 2016 official selection at the Cannes Film Festival, is a zombie movie that was recommended to me by one of the members over at Doorstoppers, who said it is their favorite in that horror sub-category. Somehow it had slipped under my radar but I have since watched it.

Directed by Yeon Sang-Ho, it ticks all the boxes: great story, scary zombies, lots of action, and it pulls at your heartstrings. An inattentive father (played by Gong Yoo) is wrapped up in work. His wife has already left him, and his young daughter (played by Kim Su-An) wants to spend the next day, her birthday, celebrating with her mother. She feels like she’s a burden on dad, and anyway, he can’t even remember that he already gave her a Wii. Although work beckons, he decides to take her to Busan. It’s a mere hour from Seoul on the high-speed train. What could possibly go wrong?

It’s interesting to think about some of the questions presented in this film, which came out four years before the Covid pandemic started. Not that I believe zombies could or do exist, but viruses can do some crazy things, as we all know. Have you seen Train to Busan? Are zombie movies your kind of thing? If so, which one is your favorite? If not, what other scary movies do you like? Let me know in the comments below. Happy Halloween!

Article Cited

“Upfront The A List: 6 Surprising Things About Jewel.” AARP The Magazine, August-September 2024, page 7.

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