Today I completed number 28 in a promised (to myself) set of 100 paintings that I would make over the course of the next few months.
Still Painting
I began thinking that I would make a new painting each day. But the pressure to paint every day didn’t work well for me. I didn’t want to feel like I had failed because I hadn’t made a painting every day. My goal was to paint joyfully, not because I felt I had to. So I decided to simply focus on doing a few paintings each week and that has worked much better for me.
“Create. Not for the money. Not for the fame. Not for the recognition. But for the pure joy of creating something and sharing it.”
―
When I first began this project I did a lot of totally abstract mixed media paintings using acrylic paint, watercolor, oil pastels, pens, pencil, and collage. But I began to long to work just with watercolor again, on good watercolor paper. For the past month I’ve been working on 8×8 inch paintings on handmade Indigo watercolor paper. Just thinking about painting on this paper makes me smile. I love it’s texture. And the small size is less overwhelming than a my large 11×14 inch mixed media tablet.
“I tell everybody to practice some art, no matter how badly or how well. It doesn’t matter. It’s the experience of becoming—of creating—that truly matters. It is as important as sex or food. It’s a tragedy to me that our schools have cut art out of the curriculum, because (they say) it’s not a way to make a living. Well, it’s not a way to make a living; it’s a way to become, to find out what you are, what you can do, what’s inside of you.”
―
Letting Go of Judgment
I struggle to let go of judgment when I look at my completed paintings. Far too often they do not turn out at all as I intended. But I keep painting. Having everything set up and visible in my office helps me to keep painting regularly.
I now have my paintbox open, paper and brushes at the ready on my work table in my office. It helps me to be reminded of my goal every time I walk into my work space.
“perfectionism is just fear in fancy shoes and a mink coat,”
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Why do we want to create?
I often wonder about the urge to create. What is it that keeps me coming back to this frustrating medium again and again? Why do people make art?
I think it is the life force in action. Look around you. Life is endlessly creating new life, dissolving old life, and creating something new again.
“Creating means living.”
― The Shape
We create shelter, gardens to grow food for sustenance, clothing to warm us, jewelry to adorn us. And sometimes we create simply for the joy of it. That is why I create. I paint with watercolors because I enjoy the process, the challenge, the unexpected results, and the surprises. But if I get caught up in judging or evaluating my work, I lose the joy and it stops me from creating.
“In the end it all comes down to this: you have a choice (or more accurately a rolling tangle of choices) between giving your work your best shot and risking that it will not make you happy, or not giving it your best shot — and thereby guaranteeing that it will not make you happy. It becomes a choice between certainty and uncertainty. And curiously, uncertainty is the comforting choice.”
― Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
Art Heals
“Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.”
— Leonardo da Vinci
If I let fear or judgment stop me from creating then I am losing a source of joy, growth, and healing.
“At the deepest level, the creative process and the healing process arise from a single source. When you are an artist, you are a healer; a wordless trust of the same mystery is the foundation of your work and its integrity.”
— Rachel Naomi Remen, MD
What do you long to create? Is today the day you begin?
May you walk in beauty.
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