Painting by L. K. Craft
I'm working on a manuscript (literary novel), the main character (a priest) attempts to contain his intensity about certain things in life . . . it's a challenging thought for me, who thrives on great intensity.
INTENSITY
by L. K. Craft
Often, I have been told that I am full of intensity. Such comments are not surprising to me, who lives in my skin. It's a fact, I feel things much more intensely than most. I capture moments and situations that others over look, which leaves me standing alone in my experiences. Such intensity offers up both positive and negative impact and outcome. I celebrate elation, joy and happiness at the highest level matched equally by painful experiences of despair and depression.
Intensity has a balanced spectrum of truth. It's pendulum swings equal, that is, it's high is equal to it's low. Great intensity comes from high-highs and low-lows with brief momentary planes of mediocrity in between. It is such intensity that gives artists their best work. Intensity is the result of feelings, seeing, tasting, touching and savoring life experiences.
My life is lived with the richest sense of gratitude and is equally balanced with a gut wrenching awareness of the pain that plagues life. Intensity feeds my writer's muse, who is curious, imaginative, and needs to play with the edges of everything. It is my intensity that's the key to my art. My level of intensity is determined by the way I breathe in life. The simplest of details capture my attention and overwhelm my senses. There's no doubt my intensity fuels my muse, who's explosive need is to purge and give meaning to everything through in my art.
It is when my muse is totally free, fully un-contained, delighting in my curiosity and taking risks, that I truly become an artist. Intensity accelerates my creative flow and sets my imagination soaring. Therefore, it's imperative that I don't write for the critics, for surely I would have to contain my muse, in an attempt to repress my intensity.
As the saying goes, 'in one ear and out the other,' is not true for me. Clearly what goes in one ear is permanently archived' and becomes a never ending resource that feeds my intensity. High intensity means that life's experience never becomes a dormant factor, but rather, simmers with the possibility of coming to a full boil if the heat get's turned up. Surely I work hard to manage my intensity. However, the artist in me delights in intensity and can be easily seduced by my muse who thrives in the archives of all my experiences. It is when I allow myself to be fully saturated with intensity, that I am truly free to be creative and real.
Such intensity is both a gift and a burden, yet I can't imagine life without it. It is during a rare moment when life becomes so still, that I feel like life is leaving me. It never lasts long, for I quickly turn to the archives of yesterday and stoke the fire with my wonderful recall. I'm always desperate and excited to feel such intensity again. It's the intensity from the unforgettable, unparallel visions and experiences in my life that make me who I am.
© Copyright 2006 L.K. Craft
|
Share
Print
Save