The Good, The Bad And The Ugly: How Do You Change The World?

Recently, I saw an exhibition of paintings by a very talented artist He clearly has a social conscience and his depictions of the pain and misery of disenfranchised and minority people are so vivid and real you can’t help but feel the pain in viewing the paintings

The artist is a warm, friendly, humble man whom I approached with a question, “does he ever paint another side of life?” He seemed interested in engaging in a conversation about it and frankly I was surprised at myself for even approaching him I have never considered myself either knowledgeable or beyond too shy to talk about art to an artist this way But, I felt compelled and in hindsight I know why

As a ‘60′s activist and an angry idealist, I would have wanted his pictures out there in the face of those whom I and he blamed for the social injustices he expressed so people would realize and wake up

Well, decades later, I now know that doesn’t work I felt very strongly the pain of his pictures, couldn’t view them for long, and also knew if he wanted people to buy them and take them home, he’d have a very small audience

I asked if he’d consider using his brilliant artistic ability to inspire by painting beauty I was surprised at what I was saying, because I have obviously metamorphosed from who I was in the past

About a year ago, I decided that the 11:00 pm news was not a good pre-bedtime story and stopped watching it If you look closely you will note that the “stories” are not necessarily chosen for their importance and useful information, but for entertainment and sensationalism I can honestly say, my sense of well being has improved When I watched the 11:00 pm news, my anxiety level heightened and with that I foolishly tried to begin a restful night’s sleep

As I thought about this man’s art, honest as it is, it does not depict most of life My new thoughts are that if we flood the world with goodness, inspirations, success, potential and love, my bet would be we’d get more of it We don’t get beauty by flooding the world with pain and horror That just makes most people want to run away into denial

The question I ask is, do you get more impetus for social change by showing people what is ugly or what is beautiful: what they want less of or more of?

As a coach I concentrate on helping my clients identify what they have that they want more of and downplay the opposite My vote is that an atmosphere of goodness, beauty, open-mindedness, ability, talent, strengths and love will produce more of the same Ugliness will produce more ugliness Is this social art equivalent to the sensationalism of the 11 o’clock news?

Dorene Lehavi, PhD is principal of Next Level Business and Professional Coaching She coaches Professionals and Business Partners and teaches teleclasses on techniques to break through barriers to the next level Dr Lehavi offers a complimentary coaching session so you can experience how coaching can work for you Contact Dr Lehavi at Dorene@CoachingforYourNextLevelcom or on the web at Http://wwwCoachingforYourNextLevelcom Subscribe to Mastering Your Next Level monthly e-newsletter at http://wwwcoachingforyournextlevelcom/newsletterhtml

dorene@nextlevelpartnershipcom

Tags | activist, anxiety, artistic, bedtime, exhibition, sensationalism, social, talented