The Magic of Art

Artists know that beautiful space of absolute creativity when a project draws us in and allows us a space of time with no worries, no angst, and simple pure activities of Muse/Soul.  There are long sections of time, that almost feels lost, as we move into exquisite concentration and focus on allowing to come to be what wishes to be.  I know that I often use bright bold colors because I love the buzz of that energy.

I do not love when Ego/EIW gets into that space and says “this is ugly.  Give it up.  You ruined it”, as often happens.  That Evil Inner Witch of mine is active in the background and waits for a weak moment of inspiration.  I might add, she is the one who says that I am not enough and never will be.  She is despicable, she is.  I have found I can squelch her by simply walking away from a painting and getting her involved in other things.  Returning with relief, I find her quietened and I find that inspiration can take over again and I solve the problem.  The dread is gone and the painting goes on.  

I love that, in that sacred energy is a space of acceptance of what a painting wishes to be, in spite of me.  It seems we move into a place of exploration after the squelching and I begin to sense a curious energy that can come as I solve that problem I was having with the painting, and with myself.  Allowing intuition to take over is highly energetic, yet calmly so.  To refuse censorship is huge and surrendering to process is a way to break through.

When working with intuitive energy, techniques and skills come in to play, automatically, and it is freeing.  Through it all, we get a glimpse of what is possible with this type of soul work.  Feelings surface as we work, without asking for them to, without dreading the negatives, without worry about who might or might love a painting we do.  It is not about others.  It is about what relief and hope and dreams come through a painting, no matter how simplistic a painting might be.  

When I see a blank piece of mixed media, or a canvas, or a rock or a piece of wood I am about to paint, there comes no dread any more.  I immediately feel a stirring of intuition and soulful expectancy to be able to express oneself.   I embrace this with all my body (hands), mind (critical self), heart (emotions), and soul (spirit).  The creative process is as much a spiritual/soulful activity, and space, as we can enter.  

We are so scripted to feel that others’ opinion of what we do, who we are, matter more than our own opinion.  We allow our EIW to say to us what we would absolutely NOT allow anyone else to say to us.  She is the tyrant father, the critical mother, the chiding grandmother.  How did we give her such power?  Those of us most beset by the EIW will find that we are overly-complaint in real life too.  That can be an ah-ha moment if you let it sink in.  Somehow, we allow ourselves to be kept small, to be the child, to be other than strong, gutsy, capable of thriving without approval from everywhere.  How did we let this happen?   

 At some point, we have to put on our big girl panties and take our EIW to task.  We need freedom of creativity and experimentation, adventure and passion… we need to be authentic.  Everything we do can never be sweet, good, perfect, and to be real is to have some art that will look absolutely unacceptable to Self, never mind to others.  We were never meant to be perfect, but we can be perfectly ourselves.  We have all brought Attitudes to our creative processes.   We set out a photo or picture of what we want to accomplish and then berate ourselves if it is not exactly a copy of that.  We are afraid to paint too boldly, too conspicuous.  We are afraid to break artistic rules, never mind paint equally well as every other artist.  We fear taking risks and finding our own artistic voice because we are, pretty sure, it will never be worthy.  How cruel we are to ourselves and our own soulful intuition.

Just draw and paint and create.  Whatever you do, you are allowing your very soul a voice.  There is something in each painting that has part of a story of you.  It is enough.  You are enough. And, once in a while, when you can slam the lid on that EIW voice, you will feel so happy that your creation says it all, says what you meant it to say, says that you have a voice and that voice alone is enough.

Brave on, beautiful creatives.  Brave on with the energy each piece calls for you to do!

©Carol Desjarlais May 8, 2020.

This painting is done with the challenge 100 days of Hair, on Facebook.