A couple of weeks ago I started a new project called Creative Walks, which is a daily podcast where I talk about creativity, inspiration, and a life in the arts. These are spontaneous thoughts on different subjects currently on my radar, and for this blog post I wanted to transcribe what I said in the episode, where I discuss the concept of seeing art as a call to adventure, and the importance of showing your work as an artist as a path to personal transformation. You can also listen to it on this link. I hope you enjoy it.
Art as a Call to Adventure
Tonight I wanted to talk about this concept I’ve been thinking about all day, the idea of art as a call to adventure. So what do I mean by that? Well, if you are familiar with Joseph Campbell’s work and the idea of the hero’s journey, you will know what I’m talking about.
But if you don’t, I’m actually very happy to be the one to introduce it to you, because Campbell’s work is so fascinating, and he really created a very useful framework to think about stories and art, one that applies to the oldest stories in the world, like the epic of Gilgamesh all the way to star wars and modern storytelling.
Basically he observed that the stories that resist the test of time, those that are present all across the globe, in folklore, mythology, religion and even popular culture, they all seem to follow a structure, something he called the mono-myth, or the hero’s journey. He thought this structure was universal, and it talked about the human condition in multiple levels, from our personal daily struggles to deep transformations in our lives.
In his book, the hero with a thousand faces, he identified 17 steps in the hero’s journey, but the basic idea can be found in this quote:
“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
This passage basically talks about the three main act in the hero’s journey: the departure from what is known, an initiation into a new world, and the return with a treasure, or a new found wisdom.
So, every story begins with the hero, the main character, in what Campbell calls the ordinary world. It’s a place he knows well, but usually he or she is unfulfilled, or where there is something wrong, or missing, and the hero is presented with an opportunity, a new thing that enters his world: there comes the first step of the hero’s journey, the Call to Adventure, which is what I’ve been thinking about today.
Sorry for this long preamble, but it’s important to know what the call to adventure means so we can talk about the concept in relation to art, and the process of making art. Also, when you start understanding Campbell’s work you can’t help but see it everywhere, and I encourage you to look into his books and public talks, there are hours and hours of his lectures available for free on the internet.
Anyway, I was thinking about this because today I was reminded of a photo I created 6 years ago, one that is very important to me, but to be honest I haven’t given much conscious or focused thought to it in a while.
This photo was my first collaboration with my wife, dancer Iana Komarnytska. Back then I was going through some big changes in my life, and dreaming of becoming a fine art and advertising photographer, so I started creating a whole new portfolio. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I remember seeing on facebook a photo she had taken and I thought it would be cool to work with her.
We spent the whole day creating a set, talking about concepts and aesthetics, and That collaboration led to others, and long conversations going into the night, and in a few short months we were together. and now Iana is my wife, and we work on artworks together everyday, and it all started with that photograph. So, I think that it’s safe to say that that photo, that project, answering that particular call to adventure, literally changed my life.
Dancer Iana Komarnytska, photographed by Pedro Bonatto in 2013, during their first collaboration together.
The Belly Dance Reader 2, edited by Lynette Harris.
This photo also served as as a call to adventure in other contexts too, because it directly influenced me to start a whole new fine art series called The Orientalist. and by putting it out there, we were asked to have the photo featured in the cover of a book. The book is called The Belly Dance Reader 2, edited by Lynette Harris at Gilded Serpent, and seeing my work on the cover of a book actually inspired me to try to create other photos that could be used as book covers. This is something I had totally forgotten about, but now that I think of it, it’s something I would like to pursue again. A new call to adventure.
Another thing that occurred to me today as I was thinking about all this, is that the hero’s journey is not linear, we all live in many stages at the same time.
For example, I think you actually go through the whole cycle of the hero’s journey in every art work you decide to create. You find the idea, you master new skills to create it, you run into walls that seem impossible to break, and when you actually finish and show your work, you find yourself at the end of the journey, where you and your world are inevitably transformed.
When you consider the audience, the people seeing what you created, the one constant, is that every art work , once it’s actually out into the world, can serve as a call to adventure, both to the audience and to yourself. And the funny thing is that in most cases you will not see the impact of your art work in other people’s lives. Neil Gaiman had a lovely idea about this: he said that art works are like messages in Bottles, messages that you send out in the hopes that someone one day will find it.
And sometimes it takes a long time. For example, I recently saw a photo of an ancient bracelet. One that has been buried for thousands of years, and re-discovered in a cave in Russia. That bracelet had such an impact on me that it inspired a whole new series I want to create. And no one saw it, for at least 30 thousand years. but that is a story for another day.
But that ancient bracelet got me thinking that we, as beginning artists, have so much anxiety about seeing the “results” of our work right away, sometimes in likes and appreciation, sometimes in money or requests for more work, and that causes all forms of frustrations, and often even preventing us from even showing our works. We desperately want to be heard, and understood, and at the same time we are terrified of only hearing silence back. that message in a bottle, never reaching anyone.
The artist in a way is like Scheherazade in the Arabian Nights, telling stories deep into the night, hoping those stories are compelling enough so she can survive till another morning. And those mind games are actually represented in the hero’s journey. it’s the next step. the refusal of the call. it’s when the hero, after being presented with this adventure, gets cold feet and thinks he can’t go through with it.
Why do we resist the call to adventure? I think ultimately it’s a fear to the unknown. Fear of finding out that we are not who we think we are. Or even worse, finding out that we cannot be what we want to become. But this is getting a bit long, so let me finish with this: Think of art works as calls to adventure. If you are drawn to a particular art work, think of what action can come as an inspiration from it. And If you are thinking about putting a new art work into the world, I urge you to do it. because it will be a call to adventure to someone else some day, maybe soon, maybe in a thousand years, but you can never know what the randomness of fate will bring, when you take a leap of faith, and send that message in a bottle into the vast ocean, knowing it will find some shore or ship one day.
When we put out a work of art into the world, it’s like you are suddenly put in a stream of time. It’s like our Present self is leaving gifts to our future selves, and the future selves of others.
This holidays I wanted to send a small gift to my listeners and readers as a thank you for your support and sharing this creative journey with me. So I decided to send everyone who sign up a personalized signed postcard with one of my favorite fine art photos. Go to pedrobonatto.com/gift to get your postcard :)
In this episode I share some thoughts on how art can be seen as a call to adventure, as understood by Joseph Campbell in the Hero's Journey.