Painting a Personal Image

"To paint a personal image in our own way may seem too simple or primitive. So we reveal ourselves only partially, barely allowing a hint of form, suggesting just a minimum of definition. We are afraid that by allowing the particular to be painted, it will imprison us. But the reverse is actually true:

To be willing to be specific is 

to dive into our 

freedom.

The images that you have inside are authentic, and they need commitment and care in order for you to grow. When you paint personal images, their significance is found not just in the content but in what moves them, the energy that has brought the painting together, the life in it. When you let these images take form in their own unique way, you are in touch with something beyond yourself. The universal is not separate from the personal. On the contrary, the universe uses the personal to manifest."

"Life, Paint and Passion"
Michele Cassou

Trust the Process

This is what I have been learning since I decided to "dedicate myself to painting" after I finished architecture school...

Click on image to enlarge

From Shaun McNiff
"Trust the Process: An Artist's Guide to Letting Go"

Going deep, all alone...

It has been my experience that there are times in my creative life when it has been useful not to show my creative work to anyone - not just useful, indispensable! Absolutely vital! During that time, it was very necessary not to compromise or be swayed by others' potential requests or pressures - as well as those of my own mental agenda.

It can be difficult for some artists not to share/show their work, at least with a few close friends. But at critical times, it allows us to create a safe, protected space where the inner-child - the inner-artist - can go deep and explore mysterious realms that were never explored before. This is not the time to take risks of externalization. It is a time to be nurturing and truly free to "work" and express for ourselves only.

This very special, and often scary time, is needed in order to disintegrate and dismantle the old ways that are becoming stale; then, in parallel, or at a later stage of this process, we will be able to recharge and renew in a deep and genuine way. A good archetype for this transformation is the "Tower"-  the XVI card in the tarot.

When we come out of that phase, like after a long winter, we will be ready for the new Spring. We will be a different artist, a more genuine one again - more vulnerable perhaps, but much richer for it: creating from our deepest truth at last.

The Dark Night of the Creative

"Steven Spielberg: We hear his name, and we think, "Steven got his first movie camera at age eight." We hear this sort of mythic story, and yet I was once in a hotel room with Steven Spielberg and Brian De Palma. They were sort of babysitting me so that I didn't date while Marty was in France. (He had put them in charge of me, so to speak, and they were my babysitters.) We were sitting in this hotel room, and Steven Spielberg says to Brian De Palma, "I've been trying to make a movie about extraterrestrials, and I can't get anybody interested in it, and I really think I should just give up."

Brian said, "Steven, I've been listening to you for years, and when you talk about extraterrestrials, you sort of light up. I don't think you should give up." Of course, he didn't give up, and he made Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.

The thing is, we don't often hear the story, "Steven Spielberg was tempted to give up. Steven Spielberg had a dark night of the soul. Steven Spielberg had doubt." Instead, we hear stories that tell us that there's such a thing as "real artists," and they are people who we are told are fearless in pursuit of their art. There's really no such thing."

From Julia Cameron
In an interview with Tami Simon on Sounds True:

http://www.soundstrue.com/podcast/on-the-creative-life/?#bottom

On The Creative Life

I sincerely enjoyed this Aug 2011 interview with Julia Cameron.

Tami Simon speaks with Julia Cameron, an award-winning writer and director. In addition to her many films, television episodes, plays, and articles in publications such as Rolling Stone, Vogue, and the New York Times, Julia is the author of the bestselling book The Artist’s Way. With Sounds True, she has recorded the audio teaching program Reflections on the Artist’s Way and, along with Natalie Goldberg, The Writing Life. In this episode, Tami speaks with Julia about how to break through creative blocks, how to deal with the internal censor that we all have when we write, and why creativity requires that we take risks. (50 minutes)

http://www.soundstrue.com/podcast/on-the-creative-life/?#bottom

Here is a sample of the questions Tami asks Julia:

TS: What about the person who has a block about doing Morning Pages?


TS: I think there's definitely an idea in our culture that if it's that simple, it's simplistic or lacking sophistication, or not really going to take you all the way, or something like that. How would you respond to that?


TS: Have you ever had a time in your life where you were blocked for a long time, like six months, or a year, or two years, or something like that?


TS: I know you've actually named your Censor. At least there's one name: Nigel. I'm curious how that came to be? What was happening in your life that this name was given to your Censor, and also how that works for you, if it's useful to have a name, and why?


TS: I read there [on your new website, JuliaCameronLive.com] that just because it might take us a long time to start a project doesn't mean that that project isn't going to be wildly successful. Sometimes we have an idea, [and if we think] "I haven't done it yet! I haven't done it yet!" that it means that it's never going to happen, never going to work. But that's not really the case, necessarily.


TS: Then the thing I'm curious about is, after having made this [Creativity]  the focus of your life now for many, many decades, do you ever have the sense that, "Maybe I would be more fulfilled if I had done this or had done that," or, "I really missed out on this other thing"?


TS: Now, there's one other quote that I read of yours that I'd love for you to comment on. Here it goes: "In order to grow as artists, we must be willing to risk. We cannot continue indefinitely to replicate the successes of our past. Great careers are characterized by great risks." I'm curious to know what, if any, are the risks that you might currently be taking in your life, [that] you identify [as], "Oh, that's a risk I'm taking."

http://www.soundstrue.com/podcast/on-the-creative-life/?#bottom

For more interviews from "Insight At The Edge"check out:
www.SoundsTrue.com