You might not think first hand that artists and explorers have much in common. That would be grossly wrong. The creative side of art is all about exploration. When an artist loses an interest in exploring, the creative side of his or her art suffers. I have found that many artists explore several realms at once, not only the product of their immediate medium, but other worlds.
Art and the golf ball analogy
Jokingly, I refer to my built in 'inclination' on a golf course to search for lost balls rather than try to follow the normal order of play. Sure, I will play a game of golf, but at the end I will have not only an improving score, but a collection of things that I have found, discoveries that I have made.
Some players will go through a game and come out of the end with a score and a pat on the back, if they did well, or a sense of gloom if they performed miserably. Not me, I win every time. I, for example, notice the crow that watches play from a high-off branch in a tall tree, laughing and highly amused that creatures of such capability, the humans playing golf below, would hit a ball, seemingly, aimlessly from hole to hole.
Art involves searching
So it is with a person who loves art. It is the searching alongside a regular mundane and often meaningless activity that pulls the spirit forward, gives it an edge and helps in the long term winning of the life process. Art involves extending mundane activity into something more meaningful.
Art can occur at any time and does not need much. Much of mine is done in my mind, but not all. I can easily tell whether I am being creative in a specific area. The product is poor and my effort sluggish. More fun is when I am on a roll, and when discoveries come with greater frequency.
Going off the fairway
Discovery is not made within the golf courses of life, but in the rough where others have failed and where one sees the wasted product of their efforts. Your searches won't be successful all the time. You may go for long periods without finding something new, but the effort will not be wasted and is as meaningful as improving your golf score and handicap.
Sure, ultimately, you want to hit the ball perfectly along the main stretches of life, but it is not wasteful to explore the roughs and wastelands. It is in such places that one sees the flotsome of previous mistakes, errors, disasters, and crashes. Failure to explore such off the beaten track places is not only to neglect a wonderful inspiration of art, wealth and creativity, but an acknowledgement that one has lost some valuable human characteristic, possibly one that made survival possible in a world of great uncertainty and risk.
Hidden treasures of our world
My analogy between golf and art does not stop with the above ideas, rather when you try to explore outside of your normal error, you will find treasures that you did not expect. Throughout our landscape there is hidden treasure. The richest areas are the oldest areas where one finds the debre of ancient civilizations and war torn communities. Such searches reveal much about human nature.
Shaping one's view of what is searcheable
It is much easier in life to think that one's world is the current now, but in reality the current now extends backwards and forwards. When you don't work like the artist, you lose an advantage of veiwpoint that comes with recognizing the many values that contribute to your overall game. There will always be those that play golf on the fairways better than you. You may put in high regard efforts to beat the croud of ordinary golfers and establish a feeling of being above average in getting a ball in a hole from a dsitance. The difference between art and competition is that most often you are creative when you avoid competition.
In a competitive atmosphere, the rules of golf define certain norms of behaviour. These prescribe almost everything about playing the game, which you are told is what you are here for. You must play by the rules. Learn the rules and work within them. Improve your skills within the scope of the rules. This is what you are instructed. But, is that enough? Can one play by the rules and still be creative.
The art of golf ball finding
What if you could have your cake and eat it too! Finding the golf balls our your course of life keeps you within the rules but you also learn from mistakes of others. Searching in the rough means that you see what everyone else tries to forget. You see the silly mistakes people make. You learn that most casualties occur very early on in the games of life, not just golf. You see how players start to play when they are not really ready. You learning the improtance of practice. You see the relevance of strategy. You study a course before you start your game and you figure it out.
Figuring it out
The artist take time to see things for what they are, have been and can be. We all have some of the artist within us. Our creativity comes from our motivation, what moves us, what excites us, what helps the imagination work within our subconscious, what connects us to the powerful hidden forces of the universe. This is our process of 'figuring it out' and making sense of what our world has to offer.