038 // Art in Our Human Experience with Marco Santini

Jun 13 2022 • 52 mins

Art is a uniquely human endeavour. For that, it is fascinating to explore why we, as animals, have this internal drive to create and share art. In this episode of the series “_____ in Our Human Experience,” I sat down with artist and mentor Marco Santini to discuss his work and the importance of art in our lives.

One question I didn’t ask Marco was, “Are we all creative?” Upon reflection, I believe I didn’t ask, not because I forgot, but because I remember - we are all creative. Creativity expresses itself differently through each of us. Why? Because we are the continuation of Creation itself. Creativity isn’t relegated to only the creation of art. Creativity, at its core, is the expression of authenticity, the sharing of our gifts (however that looks for each of us) - in doing so, we create and live a “handmade” life. That is the ultimate creation.

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I announce the launch of RE SELF's private community space (1:10) before talking about how Marco got started (3:09). Then we discuss art as a career and what comes from moving past debilitating limiting mindsets around taking that leap of faith (5:54). Marco shares about mentoring to create “confidence to share your creativity” so more people share their gifts with the world (9:23). We explore the necessity of art beyond “beauty” and aesthetics and why Marco says, “art is not about the physical piece at all. art is about storytelling" (10:36). Through Marco's engaged creative process and mural, we highlight the immense impact of asking deeply valuable questions such as “what do I value” in community (13:00), which leads Marco to tell the story of how we met and the beauty of art creating connections (18:05). He shares about following his interest to study linguistic anthology in university and the shift from anthropology and understanding the broad diversity of humanity to realizing his real core love was going into communities understanding who they are and representing them as they are (20:18). Naturally, this highlights how surrendering to what is often allows it to turn out better than we planned (24:50). We dive into what is art and why is it necessary (27:29) before I ask Marco the worst question one could ask an artist, “what’s your favourite piece?” (31:53). Then Marco shares about being an artist in the 21st century and his perspective on "the necessary evil of social media" (33:36) before discussing NFT’s, the RE SELF invitation “join us in the real world,” and my photography series I developed during COVID (41:24).

As Mentioned:

Marco Santini: http://www.marco-santini.com/

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