The other day a friend of mine said to me “you are an artist really aren't you Tim”. I have been reflecting on this and the nature of art. To me it is an expression, a communication of beauty. For me art is all around us. It's not just what we see but in what we hear, touch, feel. It's in the way someone smiles, the inflection in their voice, the glint in their eyes, their unique walk and the way they look into you. It's in the sun bursting through the space between leaves, it’s every wind inspired rustle, it’s the light glinting off a cresting wave and the calamity of the pebbles tumbling in the shore-break.

 
As surfers we experience art profoundly, not just through the beauty of the Blue but in the way the water flows between our fingers, how we stroke into a wave and slide down the face, how our bodies torque and respond in our own unique style, the quite hiss of the tube as we focus on the almond of light that visualises our achievement.

As surfers it’s the crafted rails we caress, it’s the lines of the stringer strengthening and dividing toe and heelside, it’s the subtle concaves, the tucked under edge, the form enhancing pinlines, the thoughtfully placed leash loop, it’s the light percolating through a translucent fin.  

Wherever there is care and consideration there is art, overt or not. Wherever there is unconscious reaction there is art. Wherever I look there is beauty, even in pain and suffering, for from this comes knowledge and growth. Wherever I look there are waves.

 
We are all artists, whether we decorate, build, teach, counsel, lay carpets, study, shape, glass, sand, design, serve... Where there is mindfulness there is art.

When I look at a board, if I focus I can see the journey of the blank, the choice of stringer which came from a forest far away, the glue line, how it was shaped and the tools the craftsman used, the weaving of the cloth, the tinting of the resin, the sanding of the board back to the shaper's vision.

When I look at the ocean, if I focus I can feel the journey the waves have been on to reach our shores. Every wave unique, every moment only existing right then. When I look at nature, if I focus I can truly see each tree and reflect on its years of growth, the hours of sunshine that let every bud become a twig, and then a branch the rain that nourished it and the clouds that formed, and maybe one day it will be embodied in one of my boards.

Everything is art and every creation has its own incredible journey.

So I guess I am an artist, but aren't we all and isn't everything.