One of the most common questions anyone who creates gets is “What does it mean?”
Well, what do you see? A candle, a flame, plants— what does that tell you? Aside from a potential fire hazard if none of them have been watered.
“Give and Take” is about a cycle. It’s about creativity. Monkey see, monkey do. We observe and engage with our world all around us on a daily basis, even when we are alone. We live a fragile life, as fragile as a flame. We experience the world and affect it.
I love so much about nature, the changing seasons, the balance required, the interactions of so many different elements and creatures.
As a flame does, we require sustenance. We require food in more ways than one. Not just for our stomachs, but for our minds. We take in so much between our five senses, and we create an entire understanding from them in our heads, whether from a walk in nature, or a stroll in the city. Ideas and concepts that morph with intention and new information.
The cycle is basic. The plants need light and warmth to live. When they live, they produce oxygen. The flame needs oxygen to survive. The flame provides light and warmth. The candle gives the light and warmth the plants need, and they give back by producing the oxygen the flame needs. (Obviously this is a very simplified idea. The sun is necessary, and the candle is not enough.)
When we create, we need something to know to draw from, excuse the pun. Hehe We take in the elements all around us and create with them by replicating and altering them. When we create and put it out there, we give food for thought for others and affect the world we know by affecting the minds around us.
We take from the world by observing it and give back by utilizing what we took to create something new and inform it with what we see, believe, want and learn.
That is what it is to give and take.
The concept in this image is rather isolated. A single flame surrounded by just plants. Something that was rather uncomfortable in college for me was when people would ask who my favorite artists were. I didn’t really have any. My “take” was rather limited, which in turn limited my “give.” So many others had favorite artists who were renowned old masters, contemporary and of different styles/ genres. I didn’t have that.
I have never considered myself a fan of any “artist". I loved works, not artists. I could love one work of a musician, painter or sculptor and feel totally disconnected to all their other works, so it just never made sense to me.
There were only plants around me and my single flame. That’s the way I kept myself. I never explored. My flame was anchored to a candle instead of a movable torch to wander. I wasn’t surrounded by as many other influences. I stuck to what I knew and what I liked. Everything on repeat. I was stubborn (and still am, if I am being honest).
There are so many more things that need light and warmth. Animals, soil, water— entire ecosystems.
This artwork is about learning to not limit my creativity by limiting my surroundings and experiences. It’s reminding myself that it looks so lonely and dark because I was a single flame on my own, not going anywhere, not surrounded by other flames and lights. Not surrounded by any other sources of life. Just a few plants. As beautiful and wonderful as plants are, there is more to life than just where we are. Sometimes you have to give to yourself. The courage to explore, to wander and learn; burn down obstacles, if necessary, because we are flames burning bright. We are bright and full of life and can give as much as we take.
So, what’s something that you want to feed your flame?
What inspires you to create? And how do you think you inspire others?
~Taylor