Guest Blogger: Kerin Backhaus on "Active Expression"

Gestation(mass noun): the development of something over a period of time. 

Time. Time can be a sensitive subject, times past can bring us sadness, remorse, and regret. But time can also bring us understanding, reflection, enlightenment and growth. Development, the act of growing, the act of expanding, the act of creating, the capabilities or possibilities of something …

As I stood on the hardwood floors of The Empty House Studio (TEHS) with my creative colleagues, time was on our side. Six months, not even the normal gestation period of human being … was it enough time to develop anything? Was six months’ time enough to even develop a space like TEHS?

Jug Sketch by Sarah Coffin

Three hours later I was listening to a poem created within an hour, the orange threads of yarn sewn in and out of a homemade loom, the sounds of guitar strings almost in full completion of a song, at least 10 matchbooks decorated, something like 55 photographs taken, 3 sketches drawn, several herbal seeds planted … and my rock candy beginning to crystalize.

It was then I reminded myself of this simple quote from the Buddha:

The jug fills drop by drop.

Thanks to TEHS and its founding members I was reminded why I got involved in the arts in the first place. ACTION. Whether our creative actions were cumulative or just a happening moment, it still would fill up the proverbial jug that is known as TEHS.

President Barack Obama, on this same very day, merely hours earlier, said this to America:

"We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect. We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial…"

That is what TEHS promises all creative minds. Its mission is simple, just like Buddha’s message and timely just like Pres. Obama’s words: we must act, we must create, we must meet. By filling our jugs one drop at a time, by practicing our crafts we can fill, we can develop, and we can grow in a space like TEHS. As imperfect or partial its victories will be, and as different as our creative gestations periods are, there is nothing more valuable than our active participation in expressive life. 

-- Kerin Backhaus