Diary - Life as art

Life is serious, but art is fun!

- John Irving. The Hotel New Hampshire.
The King of Mice, street clown.

Street clown image

I want to interact with people.

I want to joke about life, talk about why we do the things we do and what they mean to us, and I want to try playful things... social experiments, practical jokes, silly childlike behavior that people can smile and think, why can't more people be like this?

I was thinking about what to do for Christmas, and one of the ideas that I had was I wanted to sing. But I didn't really feel like doing caroling, and besides I don't have a group... so as a joke I thought maybe I would just knock on people's doors and sing by myself instead. Sing some cool unexpected songs that I enjoy and surprise people and make them puzzle their toupes with finger scratching.

I just thought of something - if I had a line of mannequins attached as a harness to either side, like a street performer has dancing, I could pretend to be a carol group! Ha ha. Maybe I could build one out of GoodWill donations!



I've been meaning to find an AA meeting in one of these towns for a while. I thought I found a meeting one night, but when I went up to the church, a practitioner leading a youth recreation program informed me that the schedule had been changed a long time ago and AA didn't meet on that day anymore.

I don't have alcohol addiction, but I enjoy the company of people with compassion in their hearts, a first-hand experience of deep and troubled turmoil, and have found resolve to live their life to achieve a purpose. I learn from their plight, their deliverance from a personal hell, their many unsuccessful attempts at reform and eventual hard work to practice a stringent way of life, a hard but rewarding philosophy, and walk a path toward salvation. I reflect on how it relates to my struggle with depression.

Playing flute as a way to connect with people by chance is nice, but I want more than that... I also want to share math with people the way I share music. I want to expose people to knowledge and see their response, their support.

I was thinking of making some art a la Banksy out of math theorems, physics equations. I could write a powerful formula in big writing and plain view for people driving by to wonder, what does that mean?

Banksy image stolen from here

Cairn image

I don't want to graffiti or permanently deface any surface with writing though. I was reminded of trail hiking, where people would place rocks at the summit in a pile to symbolize their ascent. I am thinking to arrange stones or something like that to write out my art.

The art could be easily taken apart just by moving stones, but what fascinates me is that people don't take apart the pile of rocks at the summit, because they recognize its symbolic value. I want to achieve the same kind of effect with art.

I want it to remain, not because spray paint is expensive to remove from a surface, an ugly blemish that people shake their head at and think what a disgrace. I want people to pass by and toss a stone on the heap to show their support.

It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.

- John Irving. The Hotel New Hampshire.