Who is in charge of the Creative Process?
Painting is teaching me to let got, let control go. Let things unfold and be what they want to be. Every once in a while I try to make a painting be something it doesn’t want to be. It is frustrating for me and the painting, neither of us are very happy when this happens. I want one thing and the painting wants something else.
My dear reader might be wondering at this moment why this happens. Isn’t the artist in charge of the creative process, the one with the brush and paint. The thing is it is so much more than what I want this to be on my paper. There is more that happens than my desire to create such and such. Sometimes I have to let the painting be what it wants to be no matter how much I want to change it.
These kind of session leave you wrung out and needing to rest instead of the effortless flow when you and the painting are on the same page. I am also going to point out that this frustration is not one that is caused by lack of skill or of not being sure how to get it out of you and onto the paper, that’s a whole different bundle of worms.
Each piece has its own desire to be what it needs to be and sometimes my wants do not meet up with those needs. Because each time I surrender to the needs of the painting I feel ease start to come in. Space is created by letting go of what I thought it should be.
Painting teaches me how to find ease in difficulty. Tenacity when faced with a hot mess of a painting. When to keep going with it or change it to make it into something else. It has helped me shift mindsets and move mountains in my life. The creative spans so much more than just the arts. Watch how you create and see how you can bring that into your life.