Compassionate Artist

Since my blog is called Compassionate Artist, I think it's about time I told you what I think a compassionate artist is!

According to www.thefreedictionary.com, compassion means “deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it”.

According to www.wordreference.com, an artist is “a person whose creative work shows sensitivity and imagination”.

I will now put these two definitions together:

Compassionate Artist: A being who is deeply aware of the suffering of others and who strives to reduce the suffering of others through creative work that shows sensitivity and imagination.

Are you a compassionate artist? I hope so. I recently saw a prime example of a compassionate artist on YouTube. The video is called “Dog Risks Life To Save Another Dog”. In this video, a dog gets hit by a truck on a busy highway in Chile. Another dog carefully crosses the highway, wraps her paws around the injured dog’s neck, and pulls her to safety.

To me, that’s a compassionate artist in action. I’m not an animal behaviourist, but the following analysis makes sense to me:

The dog was so deeply aware of another dog’s suffering, that she risked her life in order to save the dog. Even though it probably would have been quicker and easier for her to have used her teeth to drag the dog to safety, she avoided using her teeth because she was sensitive to the feelings of the other dog. So instead of using her teeth, she used her imagination to solve the problem by wrapping her paws around the injured dog’s neck and dragging her to safety. In other words, the hero dog used awareness, sensitivity and imagination to reduce the suffering of another.

Some of you may think that it’s ridiculous to call a dog a compassionate artist. (Of course, some art critics could say I’ve created far too many eyesores to be considered a compassionate artist myself!) I think we’re brainwashed by society to believe that some are artists and some aren’t artists. However, I think we are all artists. We are being creative with every word we say. We are being creative with our body language. We are being creative with every decision we make and everything we do.

Even if you are an artist in the traditional sense, sometimes you create more powerful art by putting down your paintbrush. I learned that lesson a few years ago. I put down my paint brush and picked up a stack of leaflets. I went to schools and distributed leaflets about veganism. In my opinion, I was more creative through leafleting than I had ever been through painting. By leafleting, I was creating vegans. I was also planting seeds in the minds of people who still may become vegans one day. I was being a truly compassionate artist.

Even though I know that leafleting is one of the best ways I can reduce suffering in the world, I still take time to paint and be creative in other ways. I know that being a well-rounded person is important for a healthy life. I think some other artists need to spend time becoming well-rounded, too.

Some people who define themselves as artists have displayed a dreadful lack of sensitivity towards others. In 2001, some Toronto art students videotaped themselves killing a cat and called it art. In 2007, a Costa Rican artist exhibited an emaciated dog in a gallery in Nicaragua. Just recently, a pop star wore a dress made from meat. These “artists” certainly weren’t showing any sensitivity towards others when they did these cruel things. They weren’t being compassionate artists.

In my opinion, compassionate art is the only art that matters. The wonderful thing is that the world is full of opportunities for us to be compassionate artists.

The other day, I went to the bank and saw they were selling bottled water to raise money for the flood victims in Pakistan. I immediately recognized the suffering of others (in this case the entire planet, since bottled water is so bad for the environment), and I asked to speak to a manager. I then used sensitivity and imagination. As I spoke to the manager, I applauded everything the bank does to help the environment. I applauded the fact that the bank was raising money to help people in Pakistan. Then, I told the manager about how bad bottled water is for the environment and I suggested that for future fundraisers they could sell something else. She smiled and thanked me for helping her to become aware of the problem with bottled water. The spoken word was my paintbrush and the bank manager’s mind was my canvas.

Truly, we can all be compassionate artists. Like I said earlier, some people may think that non-human animals can’t be compassionate artists. Well, what would those people say if they saw a video on YouTube of an elephant painting? I watched a video today of an elephant painting, and judging from the comments people made, they were truly shocked that an elephant had painted a picture. I, however, wasn’t shocked at all. In fact, I was saddened.

Whenever you see non-human animals acting like humans, a red flag should go up in your head. When I saw this elephant paint, I thought about bears riding bikes and donkeys jumping off diving boards. The sad fact is that humans have a long history of beating animals in order to get them to do silly tricks for money. I don’t know what happened behind the scenes with this painting elephant, but I know that non-human animals don’t have to do any stupid tricks in order to be worthy of our love and admiration. All non-human animals, from elephants in the wild caring for their young to ants aerating the soil and making life on Earth possible, are compassionate artists.

To me, all good art is rooted in compassion. All good artists are compassionate artists. Since we are all artists, reducing the suffering of others should be the number one goal of all human beings.

I hope you never find yourself in a situation like the dog on the highway, where you have to risk your life in order to save someone. However, I do hope you choose to become aware of suffering. I hope you choose to use your creativity, sensitivity, and imagination to help reduce the suffering of people, animals and the environment.

The world needs all of us to be compassionate artists. The world needs all of us to be vegan superheroes. Together, we can heal each other. We can heal the world.