40 Comments
User's avatar
ZF's avatar

If I wasn't clear why I opted for a paid subscription to The.Ink, today that clarity revealed itself. Anand, I deeply appreciate you as a discerning and sensitive thinker of the world as it is, the world as it could be, and now, through your conversation with Ryan, the world as flowing artistry. My body resonated with the process that Ryan used to unveil your inner, essential, creature. It is similar to a process I use not just for my art, but also for my life. It is based in curiosity, not certainty. And when Ryan disclosed his rendering, I broke down and had a cathartic cry. And for the first time in a long time, I felt a relief from the brokenness that beleaguers us. I am currently directing a play that I wrote, and I've been uncharacteristically nihilistic and unenthusiastic but now I feel renewed. Art is life and life force. It does not suffer disregard. It always breaks through. Thank you for today, for your work, your humanism, and for being a mensch! Give my regards to the Big Apple - signed, a transplanted, but never renounced, NYer.

Expand full comment
Ryan Piers Williams's avatar

❤️❤️❤️

Expand full comment
Christina Strutt's avatar

Great conversation thank you Ryan💞 (and Anand!) Love the four questions you asked to inspire Anand’s creature! I’m taking them with me tonight to a small gathering of our closest friends (45 years together). It’s gonna be fun! You clearly LOVE (it shines through) making art. Doesn’t all true creativity flow in joy from the love in your heart that powers the moment-by-moment process of creating and the boundless love of self (the creator) and of the creation itself? In your case your startling provocative colorful art and writing and now substack! And in my case the wild spontaneous and creative acts (mostly tiny moment to moment) of connection and kindness these many decades (including many writings and offerings). Can’t wait to see what will overflow out of you next. HUGE hearts indeed you🧡 and Anand💛. With blessings, thanks, and love 🌺

PS: Also I did grow up (in the 50s and 60s) in a country of massive diversity where each culture and religion all were respected and valued equally. A true immersion/baptism in democracy! As a child growing up, my immediate five neighbors were Chinese/Ancestor Worship, English/Christian, Gurkha/Buddhist, Arab/Muslim, and Farsi/Zoroastrian! Loving every one without conditions and Blessing all indiscriminately, in my experience, is a beautifully creative and courageous way to live. And aren’t we all called to do just that right now? Beginning with our own sweet selves of course! 😃 Isn’t fierce compassionate thinking, speaking and action (masculine and feminine operating together) exactly what our country needs right now? Shall we not try it when all else has failed? Just for this next moment for this next choice … one step at a time! Isn’t Love Always the answer in its infinite creative expressions? Love yours dear Ryan and Anand. And thank you for “listening”.🌺

Expand full comment
Iris's avatar

Wow, so much of this conversation resonated deeply with me. I'm a visual artist 🎨 who has also always loved to dance. The destructive masculine energy also resonated~I see how I often use toxic masculine energy in my reaction to horrible things. Reimagining how to use generative energy in response to the horrific is extremely interesting to me and something I very much want to learn how to do. Especially now.

Expand full comment
Jan's avatar

Mayday Wildly 🇺🇸🗽🗣️🩷💪☕️☕️

Expand full comment
Carl J Shoemaker's avatar

Oh you wild eyed radical unkempt haired Artist. Not wearing business suit and a tie

How dare you?

Expand full comment
Madeline Taylor, PhD's avatar

Haha! :D

Expand full comment
Lulu Fraser's avatar

Ha! Tell me something you don’t want me to know about you. I enjoyed that question. Made me think through my own answer, which I don’t think I have answered yet.

Expand full comment
Merieh S's avatar

This was one of the most interesting conversations I’ve heard on Substack outside of purely political discussions. I’m not used to hearing men be this self-reflective or self-aware, at least publicly.

Expand full comment
Alison Jasper's avatar

And the ear....? I think you have a gift for listening to what people are saying. And that's something perhaps we need more of.

Expand full comment
Melissa S Quilter's avatar

Thank you for this conversation. I’ve been studying dance and living as a creator for 60+ years. What a welcome conversation!

Expand full comment
Suzanne Sky's avatar

This conversation and your interaction really lit me up and touched my heart. So glad to be a subscriber and I did sign up for Wildly. Very impressed with the depth of your sharing. So much to say but I've been working on finding this balance for myself, like so many and the analogy of one eye open, one eye closed is very apt. I can't check out but I'm not going to stop enjoying my life, gardening, and so forth either! For a while I stood in the fire hose and followed everything and my sleep was starting to suffer along with stress levels. Had to come back to center. I grew up in the 60s and 70s with super conservative parents and yet was surrounded with diversity in NYC, school, college, and living in Hawai'i too. Diversity is life itself. I've loved watching some of the freedoms that opened since the 50s and it's been devastating to see the pendulum swing backwards recently. Agree with this idea of the destructive masculine that we are seeing; and also we need more of creative feminine and masculine energies working together. Interestingly, creativity, imagination, play are three activities that psychologists and researchers find to be most helpful for healing from/through stress and trauma. These are also qualities we see lacking in the current predators-in charge. Humor and a sense of meaning/purpose, compassion, kindness; all qualities of our heart and spirit are vital to cultivate in our life but especially in these times when those in power would like to snuff out our heart and spirit. I'll be listening to this convo again because it was so rich and look forward to more in the future. Thanks!

Expand full comment
Dorothy's avatar

Done

Expand full comment
Jennifer Arnold's avatar

done!

Expand full comment
Jan's avatar

Done ✅ I want to see your inner Creations 👍🏼😍

Expand full comment
Linda Flanagan's avatar

OMG! What a very needed conversation. So inspiring. Bringing art into our scattered bizarre world at the moment. Wow! Wow whee!

Expand full comment
Starlynn's avatar

Wonderful! More people could benefit from getting into the flow of creativity. Making pottery is like meditation for me. I’m a nurse and it really helped me get through COVID and some hard times in my career (I learned pottery in nursing school 30 years ago). Thanks for another important message!❣️

Expand full comment
Josette Blackburn's avatar

The present condition of the world has made me ravenous for information and retreating simultaneously. So I do the one eye opened and the one eye closed. I learned to find a space to manage both, in the middle. I am a surface pattern designer. I have been designing prints for bedding and home decor that create the feelings of safety, comfort, serenity, calm, peace, and joy. In my retreat from the noise, I have been creating like a mad woman, and enjoying it. This present environment has been the impetus of my creativity in overdrive. Insanity birthing sanity. Substack is my controlled dosage of intelligent examination of controversy, and the state of affairs. I have to stay informed. I love this LIVE, guys! Thank you!

Expand full comment