Creating Art

As an artist and painter, how I create and move from inspiration to a completed painting continues to remain a mystery to me.  In searching for the right words to describe the creative process, I love what Meister Eckhart says, "when the soul wishes to experience something she throws an image of the experience out before her and enters into her own image."



One of my acrylic paintings on canvas.  It looks like things are fluttering in the wind or across a pond.  I feel free and happy when I look at this painting.  The colors make my heart sing.

Joseph Campbell writes about the artist in terms of a spiritual journey: "The real artist is the one who has learned to recognize and to render what James Joyce has called the radiance of all things, as an epiphany or showing forth of their truth...It's important to live life with the experience, and therefore the knowledge, of life's mystery and your own mystery.  This gives life a new radiance, a new harmony and a new splendor..."

To me, it is pure joy to creatively express.  There is nothing like it.  I ask people to experience this for themselves and to make art without being concerned about how it will turn out…whether it is a painting, a drawing or a piece of pottery.  Just put your brush to canvas and move your arm and the rest will happen.  When I stand in my studio before a blank canvas and do just that I begin to enter a very still and sacred space that some call God.  I remain in awe.



Mistaking Something for Something Else

Oftentimes, in our limited perception, we mistake one thing for something else.  An example is seeing a coiled rope lying on the ground at a campsite at sundown and thinking it is a snake.  We could easily become frightened by such an illusion and run for cover. 

Our daily fears and anxieties are often triggered by similar misperceptions of what is. We simply see what we "believe" to exist. 


Is it cactus or the back of a porcupine?

How often do we see things in this manner?  How often do we label something only to find out later that our perception is completely erroneous?  How often do we cling to our certainties only to end up suffering the consequences from such limited perception?

I have to remind myself often that my thoughts and perceptions might be causing me problems and when I admit that, then I can begin to loosen my grip on what I think is right.  Like Mark Twain said, “I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”
 



Oneness

We are all one.  Everything in the Universe is as intertwined as a spider’s web. A disturbance in one area is felt throughout the whole.  It is like touching a mobile - even the slightest touch causes the  entire structure to shift and move. 

Nothing or no one is separate.  We do not live or have our being in a vacuum.  Our individual actions do not occur in isolation like we might think.  No matter how big or small, everything affects everything else.  The mystics and sages of the world have been telling us this forever. The familiar story of the butterfly flapping its wings halfway around the world causing a reaction somewhere else far away comes to mind.



Steven and Alia at play

 

The concept of oneness doesn't make sense to us logically or when we think in a linear or conventional way.  This only perpetuates the idea of separation. However, if we quiet our busy minds and listen with our hearts and our whole being, we can begin to sense our inter-connectedness.  We can sense it when watching children play, when being in nature, when listening to a beautiful piece of music or when looking at a beautiful piece of art - boundaries fall away and we are all one.  Everything affects everything else.  It is an important lesson for me to keep doing my part.