The Art Oracles
For my 30th birthday, my sisters decided to gift me with a reading with an Oracle. As a person who enjoys reading horoscopes, and is fascinated by how people try to make sense of a world that makes no sense via the stars, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the reading.
It was done online, via Telegram. I listened to my favorite soundtracks (hi Nobuo Uematsu) and let the messages come pouring in. And I didn’t expect it, but it was the most reassuring thing, ever to hear messages like the ones I got? I got assurances about love, about using my voice, the power of patience (which is always, always something I complain about). And it really wasn’t about totally believing that I already know who my soulmate is (yeah, she said that) and that I will have a soul connection with them (again, they said that too), but it was just a nice thing to know that the universe has my back, in a way.
Long story short, I realized my younger sister had Oracle Cards based on artists’ lives (mostly white artists, but the art world has always been Very White Centric and ANYWAY) and thought I would look for a little guidance on this new thing I’m writing. Inspired by the universe (lol) and this post on WeVerse about Namjoon and Korean modern art because I am happy to be baby BTS Trash now, I did a little three card pull (for no other reason than three seemed a good number) and thought I would hear what the oracles had to say. Note that I will only take the insight I need, because I can do that, haha.
William Blake - ‘Vision requires not sight, but spirit.’
This card has come up for me before! And I still do not love it. I tried Googling his art and um…nope. I can’t. I know William Blake is supposed to be one of the more popular romantics of the 1700s-1800s, but his art (to me) is really dark, and I find very little comfort in it. But as you can see from his card (with a Poy-sian strategically placed), Blake was a believer of sexual liberation, which I am all for. You do you, Blake.
I like the idea that meeting your goals require more strength than actual planning. In the Final Fantasy games, the Spirit stat determines how much magical damage you can take. And I guess that’s perseverance in a way, knowing how to keep on the path, even if you can’t see it well.
DISCLAIMER: At this point I also pulled the Jean Cocteau card, which literally says “happily ever after does not exist” and so I laughed, only slightly horrified, reshuffled the cards and pulled again.
Diane Arbus - Look directly at whatever you’re avoiding.
Okay, this bit of advice was ironic, considering that I decided to totally reject the other card, but here we are. Arbus was a photographer in New York in the sixties, moving from fashion to portrait photography. She became famous for taking very straightforward, head-on shots like this self-portrait, giving attention to the people “in the margins” and other society castaways.
All around me, I notice that one of the ways the people in my house (in my life) have coped with the pandemic is through introspection. It’s very common here to listen to someone talk about their feelings, what they think they need to work on. And personally, I have never been for introspection. I’ve always sort of coped with my emotions and feelings via projection into my writing, which is both a good and bad thing. It’s why I always feel like a chunk of myself in the characters I write, why it feels like the character I wrote at a particular time is a reflection of what I was thinking, how i was feeling. Maybe not a great quality, but it’s been working for me for so long.
But i have to admit, that the personal struggle I went through with the last book I wrote (currently off to beta readers, outside my control), which hasn’t really happened before, is an effect of me being affected by the pandemic, without…necessarily…facing it? I DON’T KNOW. I think I will think about this a little more.
Le Corbusier - Go big and go home.
Le Corbusier was a French architect. Google his buildings and you’ll see why I call his work “cubism, but make it IRL.” Corbu, as he also called himself, was a fan of combining form and function, but on a huge scale, like cities and homes. It’s a particular kind of art philosophy that kind of totally discards the old, and ideas like his are maybe why we get huge ugly blocks like SM’s buildings now.
BUT I “go big and go home” was the most relevant bit of advice I got from this pull. I have…certain ideas for this book that make me wonder if it’s a good choice, but advice like that just makes me go back to my favorite thing to tell myself when I’m overthinking — fuck it, bahala na. I can choose to do something big today, and go back to small things tomorrow.
