Stop Thinking, Start Painting

I love the question "What if?" In fact, I include it as part of my inspiration as I push boundaries and explore new territories at the easel. I also love to sit and ponder and meditate. It brings me closer to God, opens my spirit to the unusual, brings new perspectives and directions. However I have also discovered that thinking too much can deter me from inspiration and "What if?" can paralyze creativity if either is focused on the negative rather than the positive. "What if I don't get into this or that show?" "What if I don't sell anything?" "What if it rains all weekend for an art show?" Are just a few of the questions that the enemy of my soul wants me to dwell on.

This morning I caught myself going there so I did the thing that works best to silence the voice of doubt. I got up, got dressed, and got to the studio. Starbucks in hand, music playing, I began three new paintings. I stopped thinking about anything other than what I was doing and truly began to enjoy the process and the day.

Whatever your life medium, my advice is this: when you find yourself thinking too much, get up, get out, and get going to whatever it is you enjoy. You will find that the doing overtakes the thinking and you'll be on your way to feeling better.

What's Pulling your Focus?

Okay, I won't be in the studio/gallery tomorrow so I wanted to write this today while it was fresh on my mind. " What's pulling your focus?" is a question I ask my students as they are completing a painting. It is a question that is meant to ensure that the focal point of a painting is in fact where the eye is being drawn. If anything else is competing with the focal point it is "pulling focus".

Lately, as I have been broadening the whole "less is more" idea to include my professional life, I have realized that there are those things in my work life that are pulling my focus away from what I feel I should be doing. Recently I have come to the end of the season of grace for a commitment I made and have followed through with for 4 years. It is time to release it. A good sign that it is time is I lack the passion and motivation I once had. I also find myself putting off what I should do for my career in order to fulfill the commitment.

It is good to evaluate our time commitments every so often. Sometimes we wake up to see that we're not looking at the focal point of our life; we are in fact focusing on and spending valuable time and energy on a distraction. Less is more. What are you focused on? I hope it is the true focal point of your life.

Free to Play

Since I have a difficult time writing once I get to the gallery, here I am on my porch. The problem with that is that I have not taken the photo of the piece I want to speak of. I will try to do that when I get to work this morning. It is not so much the end result that matters as the journey to get there.

Freedom to experiment is what has been on my mind lately. Several weeks ago, when the transition to less is more began, I took about a dozen canvases and primed over them. Since much of my work is very textural, I needed to add modeling paste to the canvas to even out the surface of the design, but still left a highly textured support to work on. So last Saturday I took one of the canvases and began to paint. The point was simply to use up leftover paint from a creative expression workshop and play a little. What ensued was a process I am working to duplicate because I liked the effect so much. First applying texture to the canvas, then a thick layer of paint mixed with gel medium, then brushing it with a wet brush, then sponging off, and finally smoothing out areas with a palette knife. And that was just the background.

Here's my point. Give yourself freedom and time to simply play at your easel. The artist in all of us is a child and given too many adult responsibilities that child can become stifled. Explore, have fun, enjoy the reason you became an artist in the first place. You know what they say, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." It holds true even when you love doing what you do for a living. So have some fun today!

Part 2: Which voices to you listen to?

The more I thought about my last post, the more I realized that it was only a part of the equation. Another part (not sure the equation is complete even with this part) asks the question, "Which voices do you listen to?" Now I'm not saying to exclusively surround yourself with those people who love and adore you, but I am saying know who is in your corner, hearing your true voice, and encouraging you on your path. In other words learn to recognize The Voice of Truth from wherever it comes. While at an art show (that ended with no sales by the way) a while back I was feeling a bit discouraged. Then a boy of about 10 walked up to my paintings and couldn't stop staring. He said to me as his mother called him away, "You are really good!" At that moment for me that was the voice of truth (as they say, out of the mouth of babes). You see for me it wasn't the source of the voice that mattered, but the message. My Creator knew that I needed encouragement for my own creating; so He sent a boy to pass on the message. Do I really believe that? Yes, I do!

We had the opportunity to experience something truly unique last night. The band Gungor played at Grace Chapel last night. Now there is a worship experience truly out of the box. Amazing! Check out their website, buy their cd Beautiful Things and see them live if you can. Breaking out of the box, following their true voice, no doubt about it. www.gungormusic.com