An Aha Moments podcast!? That is correct, friend. I’ve been sitting on this for a while, and it’s time to let you have it. Because it’s 2025, and we have art to make.
In this little flagship episode, I talk about the importance of boundaries between personal and public life and ways we can share our more vulnerable and intimate experiences artistically to uplift and connect, rather than oversharing on Facebook. (Learned from experience there.)
If you’re feeling too overwhelmed or burdened by things going on in your life, I hope this can offer you a way back to your creativity, not by ignoring what you’re experiencing, but using it as fuel.
In the episode I mention the photo series (below) that I made back in 2021. Are there a lot of things I would do differently now and ways I’ve grown as an artist since then? Definitely. But it always serves as a reminder to me that even when I’m “stuck”, there are ways out.
Comfort Addiction Photo Series
by Sarah Aha
created in Winter of 2021
“Princess or the Pea?”
12x12 open edition archival fine art print available
This image is the first in a series about the addiction to comfort and complacency.
Why go outside when it's warm in here?
Why leave home when it's stocked with all my favorite snacks?
Why wake up when it's easier to stay asleep?
“Your life is your life
Don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
Be on the watch.
There are ways out.
There is a light somewhere.
It may not be much light but
It beats the darkness.
Be on the watch.
The gods will offer you chances.
Know them.
Take them.
You can’t beat death but
You can beat death in life, sometimes.
And the more often you learn to do it,
The more light there will be.
Your life is your life.
Know it while you have it.
You are marvelous
The gods wait to delight
In you.”
Charles Bukowski
“Frozen”
Choice paralysis. Executive dysfunction. Depression. Neurodiversity. Late-stage capitalism. Exploitation. Words I didn’t have for my experience in the world when I needed them as a young adult venturing out on my own.
Lazy. Irresponsible. Selfish. Insecure. Not talented enough. These are the words I used instead…
I’ve had and lost so many jobs over the last decade due to my inability to function according to societal standards. Each one reinforcing to me that the life I had imagined growing up wasn’t one that I actually wanted in reality. It was an illusion. I had this expectation that at some point in life I would choose one thing that would become my life’s work and life would be a clear and steady path from that point on. Maybe that is still true for some people.
But I see many of us still groggy and wiping our eyes from waking up to a very different reality than the one we were groomed for. The notion of a steady, consistent path in life is an appealing and addictive one. It’s the fairy tales and rom coms we grew up with… the protagonist hits some bumps in the road but eventually finds their path and lives happily ever after.
Reality (at least my reality) is a lot more uncomfortable. It includes a lot more ambiguity. It requires that I let go of the idea that there is a “right choice.” Universal forces are not going to come to my aid to knock me back onto some predetermined “right path.” But they will come invite me to dance.
“We thought of life by analogy with a journey, a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end, and the thing was to get to that end, success or whatever it is, maybe heaven after you’re dead. But we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing or to dance while the music was being played.”
― Alan Watts
“Holding”
What is the difference between holding ourselves close out of love versus holding ourselves back out of fear?
How much do we need to protect ourselves from the world versus how much do we need to become more resilient for the world?
As we grow up and have to parent ourselves, when do we decide it’s time to leave the nest?
…Questions as I dance with the idea of self-discipline while simultaneously attempting to release the cultural expectations of success I’ve been conditioned with.
“Behind Glass”
Shared from Anterro Allí:
“SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE.
In his 1967 book, French philosopher Guy Debord traces the development of a modern society in which authentic social life has been replaced with its representation: "All that once was directly lived has become mere representation." Debord argues that the history of social life can be understood as "the decline of being into having, and having into merely appearing." This condition, according to Debord, is the "historical moment at which the commodity completes its colonization of social life."
I don’t think Debord could have imagined in 1967 the resonance his words would have here at the dawn of the new metaverse.
It is taking more and more courage to be real. To be slow. To be boring. To put more attention on our physical world than our digital… to value vulnerability, bumps and lines and texture on skin, awkward silences… when we can create a world of perfection all from the comfort of our bed.
I love technology and all the creative possibilities it affords us. But I refuse to live my entire life behind glass.
“Switched On”
12x12 open edition archival fine art print available
When we finally take a small step toward the realization of our creative aspirations, we become a source of our own light. No longer seeking distraction, entertainment, fulfillment from the outside world that only wants to fill our minds with a compulsion to consume, we become a source of life-affirming beauty and connection.
Make your offering unto the world.
In love and inspiration,
Sarah
Greater selection of open edition fine art prints available here.
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