This past week, I took myself on an artist date to the Rodin Museum. For those who aren’t familiar with artist dates, they are something Author Julia Cameron suggests we do weekly to deepen our creativity. Basically we treat ourselves on a date, whether this is to a park, film, beach, or even the $1 store. Often we wait for someone else to do activities with, but in this we treat ourselves, regardless how big or small. This is a concept I love, and even used to recommend it to clients.
I’ve been living in Paris for over seven months, and I had only been to this Rodin museum twice in those months. It was a museum I fell in love with 18 years ago when I first visited Paris and one part of me thought I may spend my days here volunteering at the museum. That didn’t happen, it was a beautiful warm (but not hot) day, and perfect moments to spend Rodin and his sculptures.
Rodin’s works speak to me, as I felt he was one of the first artists to display in sculpture the intensity of our emotions. This includes not just victory, but the suffering, longing, pain, ecstasy, wonder, and contemplation. Although he’s most known for his piece The Thinker, there’s so much more depth to his pieces. This is what calls out to me in his work. I am someone who veers to the optimistic, perhaps in the past of demonstrating toxic positivity. This blog is called It Only Takes A Smile, for gosh sake. But over time, I have been learning the beauty that exists in suffering, complexity, and despair. I am not idealizing these emotions, but they are part of our human existence and also part of our internal and collective shadow. There’s a necessity to embrace the totality that life has to offer, and I appreciate the artists who can share humanity’s vulnerabilities (and sometimes their own).
On a future artist date, go to a local museum and examine the versatility of the works available. Embrace both the dark and the light. See what stirs inside.
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”-Carl Jung
It Only Takes A Smile 