SPARK!: The Revolution Begins with Deep Play

This world contains many more dimensions than the one we currently inhabit. Before I lose you, you know the feeling…don’t you? Of suddenly playing with a kid, a dog, a friend, your food? The rules of normalcy are suspended, and you chase the moment, no matter how nonsensical. It’s about engaging joyfully with a moment in time, and that moment is there to greet you like an old friend. “Ah.” It says. “THERE you are.” You know this place just as well as you know the other spaces you inhabit. In this moment, you are pure energy and joy, not an amalgam of baggage and responsibility.

I believe, like most artists, that this moment is crucial for innovation and authentic expression. Through practice, work and failure, it can be sustained and harnessed, leading to the creation of something new (however ephemeral that newness may be). A deep satisfaction comes from work produced under its influence; a spark of hope for the future.

Defining this moment is the work of philosophers - for me, it is enough simply to know it exists just outside of my perception and that I can access it when I choose. I would go so far as to argue that we all can. It’s a delightful (and woefully untapped, IMHO) feature of the human condition. For lack of a better word, I’ll name it Creation. Something new is created in a space that is not inhibited by rules, money or judgment.

Our current state of worry, fear and division is the direct opposite of Creation. It is Destruction; the quashing of hopes and possibilities, the blind strangling of divergent ideas and philosophies in the name of Being “Right.”

Decisions made from this place of Destruction are necessarily subtractive - rid ourselves of the Fear, the Worry, the Other, the Inconvenient, and maybe that promise that things will be set to rights will come to be. This is also part of the human condition, and it’s time to balance that shit out.

I created SPARK!, in part, to create a coalition of those who believe in these concepts and to demonstrate, elevate and amplify Creation to the best of our abilities, to the widest possible audience. In fact, the most basic activating gesture in Soundpainting (the sign language for live composition in which I am deeply imbedded), is “PLAY.” It is not “commence” or “go”, and that is intentional.

If we’re flying by the seats of our pants anyway, what would happen if we chose to chase the magic of potential, inherent in play, rather than the force of entropy inherent in most of our other options? Through repeated exposure, could we create a virus of play and possibility to combat the virus of sickness and hate?

11 other artists have joined the experiment. And we’re doing it in Oklahoma City, arguably the epicenter of Destructive Thinking (at least with regards to the majority of our legislators). We tap our impulses, formed by our training, heredity and communities, and develop work that is, in this moment in time and in this particular place, revolutionary.

It’s hard to maintain, both as a practice and on a practical level; the daily barrage of negative news and fights on the internet never stops. Rent does not cease to exist, and paying artists is incredibly expensive. Too, beginning a large, hopeful company of 12 artists while I myself am on a healing journey from years of C-PTSD is fraught with imposter syndrome and screeching vulnerability. “C’est pas de la tarte,” as the French are wont to say. It is not pie.

However, I believe with all my heart that what SPARK! is doing is very very important, and so I will carry on seeking resources to ensure it can continue. I’ve created this blog because it’s occurring to me that maybe others might find this path interesting. A handbook, of sorts, for a creative process with a broken wing, in the belly of the beast of America.

A final word of warning if you follow me on this journey; as my dear friend Angel says, “my simple is your crazy.” I’ll try to explain things as best I can, but you may just have to strap in and see where the ride takes you.

Whoever you are, out there on the other side of this screen, thank you for being here. Today, Love Wins.