What Is An Adventure?
The dictionary meaning is pretty straightforward, it is simply an “unusual, exciting or daring experience.” This can encompass everything from trying a new type of food, or experiencing strong emotions, to moving to a small Italian village or scaling an abandoned building in the dark.
I have found myself merely existing in between adventures. The feeling of being alive is only intensified when the fear of being dead is near. Now, this is not the healthiest way to live, but it might be the most adventurous.
Along the way, I realised that art as a whole is an adventure. The feeling of paint drying against the canvas sometimes feels as if it’s drying against my own skin, and sometimes the pallet knives cut sharper than the ones in the kitchen.
The stories of adventure in a Caravaggio keep me up at night, the intense mystery and the probable meanings. At first sight, it seems as though the biblical meaning is all that he wanted to express but the more I look at them, the less I’m convinced. A man who created such beautiful works with historical relevance never signed his own work. Except once, with blood.
A life like that raises many questions; he lived his life as a wanted man, wanted by the law but also a life so attractive, that it was probably also wanted by the people around him.
The charisma of a life with no responsibilities is so attractive but often mistaken as selfishness.
I often get caught up thinking about adventure, and what it means to me. In the grand scheme of things, I want my whole life to be an adventure. To do the unexpected, to surprise me and to be inspired by the people around me, who are secretly extraordinary. I want to live my life on my terms, even if that means being unable to please the people around me.
Many artists have lived extreme lifestyles, seemingly unnecessary to the average person. For example, when Frida Khalo found out that her husband cheated on her, she took the effort to sleep with his mistress. Salvador Dali, who was famously impotent, would throw large parties to just watch people act on their sexual desires.
It is said that art flows the best out of broken minds, but maybe only the mids broken enough by the world need to find solace in art.
The adventure that is art, has overtaken my life, and the poetry that flows through me also manifests itself with colour and illustration.
Sometimes, I look at the night sky and want to run away
But the freedom I crave is seen as selfishness and the suns I chase are forbidden
Somewhere along the way I realised, I can run away from the destination
I can add distance between you and me
But no matter where I'm headed, I'll have to suffer through the journey
And when the mountains call
And when the waves whisper
That the road I'm on is a long and winding one
I hear the moon laugh as my anklets giggle
Because as fast as I run, no distance is enough between me and myself
