The land of Artistic Creation

Administrator Art Blog

The last thing I expected from art is to face handing over the control. But the best art times I had and hope to have more in future are when I am not the commander of the creative process. There are moments when I am able to throw planning and wishing out of the window and become a part of magic. This process is possible when the degree of freedom is allowed but ironically that freedom is gained when I achieved certain level of skills that allowed for experimentation, diversion from rules as a choice rather than limitation. It also helped me to get more clarity on type of creator I am naturally, where my gifts are more likely to be used and come close to authentic expression.

  I am a big fan of artist who share their processes and are open about how piece of art, would that be painting, sculpture or anything, is born partially from their initial idea and then partially from unexpected turn that idea takes during the artistic act of creation. It is fascinating to see how many possibilities there are and how ideas can lead us to discover much more than just a “picture”. But to be able to do that we need courage, trust, and openness. Courage allows to do things we may consider less safe like not following old formulas, painting, and overpainting, working with spontaneous lines, not being attached to precision, loosing control and also the risk of “ruining” the piece. Courage also re-frames what failure means. Failure as such doesn’t exist in negative sense of meaning. Failure is a learning opportunity, creative opportunity, act of creation for sake of it. Failure is closely attached to our hurt ego and moving away from failure as the concept itself allows to go beyond our limitations. Then trust. We need to trust that at some point this all makes sense, that there is purpose in creating for itself, that process is the goal, and we are creators worth creating. We need trust to be able to start creating as often as possible even if it feels like there is no point in it. Finally, we need to trust ourselves that even in dark moments of creative desperation we will pull through eventually. And then openness: to all that comes, to expression of our art, what is communicates and how. Maybe we want to paint but touch the drawing and cannot stop. We did not expect, either plan it but being open to possibilities allows unexpected sources of artistic expression to emerge. This is the land and space I would love to create from more often. Space of trust, openness and courage. Losing the need to control and immersing myself into the process that will reveal itself more than I expect. This is the space where wonderful, beautiful art is born. I am wising you finding your space like that too.

 

Witnessing Emotions and Drawing

Administrator Art Blog

 Art is the way of living choices I make. Choices involving risk, acceptance, sometimes resignations and sometimes letting go as well as destruction. All those elements are present in both – artistic and life’s process. I can look back few years ago now and see how intertwining of art and life had been present in my existence. As I change, transform or same call it age, the art moves at the same time into new direction.

 

  Last year brought me closer to witnessing an authentic human experience than ever before, mainly by intense work in therapy with the clients. One to one work when relational depth can create a very intense witnessing of another person’s emotions, and actually ways they experience the world, really impacted on my own way of relating to the world. This in a very natural way leaked into my own art. I always have been interested and drew faces, figures or produced abstract work emotionally charged with colour. I reach for colour easily and I am not afraid of strong, bold lines. Peaceful fields and calming seas never really hit my heart. And to be true to ourselves we better off accepting our natural voices and expressions. Work in therapeutic field brought me closer to diverse range of human experiences, it showed me vulnerability, survival capacity, as well as power of personal transformation. As this have been happening my drawings have been changing too. I found a new way of merging working from imagination and reference – I started to work with invisible emotion, just like in the therapy room I would witness the intensity and capacity of human experiences. My mind stopped being concerned with the accuracy of drawing, likeness of the model. The picture served just as a vehicle, way of accessing far more interesting subjects of experiences on mental rather than physical level. These drawings were fascinating me, and artistic process quickly became exciting, like a new unknown adventure of using creativity for discovery of more meaning – meaning beyond the picture. It provided an opportunity to wonder, explore many images and through the process of immersing yourself fully into the art making, discovering what the images were truly communicating to me. When I create, I must go beyond just the picture, art is not the picture - it is what we can see and feel beyond this actual picture – shortly speaking – magic!