Art Heals the Mind, Body, and Heart

Short article, worth reading to validate what we already know intuitively:

http://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/art-heals-mind-body-and-heart

DEPRESSION?!... Are you sure?

DEPRESSION?! Are you sure?
Wow...!!! Well said! I wish I had read this wonderful quote by Richard Rudd - The Gene Keys -again and again and again all these years, instead of torturing myself endlessly...

"We do not know exactly why we humans feel gloomy on certain days and happy on other days, despite our thousands of theories. Just as there is external weather, there is also internal weather, and it differs in every human being. Yet it is the very unpredictable nature of these internal weather patterns that so many of us struggle with. When you feel the movement of creation inside you, you are happy. When you feel entropy inside you, you are no longer happy. This continual interplay of energy in your life makes you want to always maintain the happy side and escape the gloomy side. Herein lies the greatest flaw in your nature and the distortion of the true energy of entropy into depression.

The 1 st Shadow appears in your life whenever you feel flat or sad or low. This is a chemical process that the body enters into, and if you try to comprehend it, find a reason for it, or worst of all try to fix it, then the natural process will not complete itself cleanly. If you resist this state mentally, one of the great dangers is that you will interfere with its process and fix it inside yourself as depression, because this 1 st Shadow triggers the chemical processes that can lead to depression. Most depressive states are the result of resisting certain Shadow frequencies within our genetic makeup. Depending on your individual genetic predispositions, you may be more or less prone to feeling low than others. Generally speaking, the more creative a person you are, the more deeply you are affected by this kind of melancholic chemistry.

The state of entropy is rather like a vacuum state. Your system is recharging, so the energy within you withdraws into a kind of stasis. The resulting feelings or lack of feeling and/or enthusiasm provide a delicate environment for something quite special to occur, if you are patient enough to allow it. This something is the creative process. In other words, your low energy means that something intangible is gestating inside you even though you cannot yet see it. Only when the state mutates to its expressive stage will you see what the process is about. These low times in your life are therefore very special times, and they generally require aloneness and withdrawal in order for the seeds sprouting inside you to germinate. The worst enemy at such times is interference from your own mind (or indeed someone else’s mind) wondering what is wrong with you. The programming partner of this 1 st Shadow is the 2 nd Shadow of Dislocation, which can only further worsen your state of mental turmoil if you try to intellectually understand what is happening to you. The 2 nd Shadow tends to fuel the fire of your anxiety, since it gives you the feeling that everything is out of sync with the whole, even though this is not the case. Because of this 1 st Shadow, humanity as a species is not nearly as creative as it could be. The reason for this is the weight of the collective denial of the natural phases of entropy that individuals experience. This Shadow can only be resolved and accepted at an individual level, which takes a great leap of courage, patience and trust

When you suddenly find yourself blind and lost, the best thing to do is to stay still and allow it to pass gently through your system, giving it the minimum mental attention possible. This deep acceptance of entropy as natural in your life will eventually allow you to unlock its true potential and in time transcend it entirely."
Richard Rudd - The Gene Keys

This site is for people who want to improve their drawing and painting

http://www.learning-to-see.co.uk/about

This self-taught artist is inspiring on many levels. First and foremost, as a human-being. This is how he starts:

"This site is for people who want to improve their drawing and painting. It exists because I want to help you take control of your own learning. Why? Because it worked for me, and I think it’ll work for you too. In late 2005 I returned to drawing and painting after a long gap. My work was awful. I was horrified. I realised that I needed to learn again from the beginning. Along the way I went down many dead ends. But slowly, surely, I progressed. I learned a lot about how we learn. I want to share that with you so that you don’t have to make the same mistakes I did."

To Anyone Who Thinks They’re Falling Behind In Life

Awesome article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-varon/to-anyone-who-thinks-theyre-falling-behind_b_9190758.html


You don’t need more motivation. You don’t need to be inspired to action. You don’t need to read any more lists and posts about how you’re not doing enough. We act as if we can read enough articles and enough little Pinterest quotes and suddenly the little switch in our brain will put us into action. But, honestly, here’s the thing that nobody really talks about when it comes to success and motivation and willpower and goals and productivity and all those little buzzwords that have come into popularity: you are as you are until you’re not. You change when you want to change. You put your ideas into action in the timing that is best. That’s just how it happens. And what I think we all need more than anything is this: permission to be wherever the fuck we are when we’re there. You’re not a robot. You can’t just conjure up motivation when you don’t have it. Sometimes you’re going through something. Sometimes life has happened. Life! Remember life? Yeah, it teaches you things and sometimes makes you go the long way around for your biggest lessons. You don’t get to control everything. You can wake up at 5 a.m. every day until you’re tired and broken, but if the words or the painting or the ideas don’t want to come to fruition, they won’t. You can show up every day to your best intentions, but if it’s not the time, it’s just not the fucking time. You need to give yourself permission to be a human being. “If it’s not the time, it’s just not the fucking time. You need to give yourself permission to be a human being.” Sometimes the novel is not ready to be written because you haven’t met the inspiration for your main character yet. Sometimes you need two more years of life experience before you can make your masterpiece into something that will feel real and true and raw to other people. Sometimes you’re not falling in love because whatever you need to know about yourself is only knowable through solitude. Sometimes you haven’t met your next collaborator. Sometimes your sadness encircles you because, one day, it will be the opus upon which you build your life. We all know this: Our experience cannot always be manipulated. Yet, we don’t act as though we know this truth. We try so hard to manipulate and control our lives, to make creativity into a game to win, to shortcut success because others say they have, to process emotions and uncertainty as if these are linear journeys. You don’t get to game the system of your life. You just don’t. You don’t get to control every outcome and aspect as a way to never give in to the uncertainty and unpredictability of something that’s beyond what you understand. It’s the basis of presence: to show up as you are in this moment and let that be enough. Yet, we don’t act in a way that supports this lifestyle. We fill every minute with productivity tools and read 30-point lists on how to better drive out natural, human impulse. We often forget that we are as we are until we’re not. We are the same until we’re changed. We can move that a bit further by putting into place healthy habits and to show up to our lives in a way that fosters growth, but we can’t game timing. Timing is the one thing that we often forget to surrender to. Things are dark until they’re not. Most of our unhappiness stems from the belief that our lives should be different than they are. We believe we have control — and our self-loathing and self-hatred comes from this idea that we should be able to change our circumstances, that we should be richer or hotter or better or happier. While self-responsibility is empowering, it can often lead to this resentment and bitterness that none of us need to be holding within us. We have to put in our best efforts and then give ourselves permission to let whatever happens to happen—and to not feel so directly and vulnerably tied to outcomes. Opportunities often don’t show up in the way we think they will. You don’t need more motivation or inspiration to create the life you want. You need less shame around the idea that you’re not doing your best. You need to stop listening to people who are in vastly different life circumstances and life stages than you tell you that you’re just not doing or being enough. You need to let timing do what it needs to do. You need to see lessons where you see barriers. You need to understand that what’s right now becomes inspiration later. You need to see that wherever you are now is what becomes your identity later. “There’s a magic beyond us that works in ways we can’t understand. We can’t game it. We can’t 10-point list it. We can’t control it.” Sometimes we’re not yet the people we need to be in order to contain the desires we have. Sometimes we have to let ourselves evolve into the place where we can allow what we want to transpire. Let’s just say that whatever you want, you want it enough. So much so that you’re making yourself miserable in order to achieve it. What about chilling out? Maybe your motivation isn’t the problem, but that you keep pushing a boulder up a mountain that only grows in size the more you push. There’s a magic beyond us that works in ways we can’t understand. We can’t game it. We can’t 10-point list it. We can’t control it. We have to just let it be, to take a fucking step back for a moment, stop beating ourselves up into oblivion, and to let the cogs turn as they will. One day, this moment will make sense. Trust that. Give yourself permission to trust that. Jamie Varon is a writer based out of Los Angeles. You can connect with her on Twitter, Instagram, and at her Facebook page.

On the subject of WORK...

On the subject of WORK -- Ah-ah-ah!!! This is GRAND, so "Frenchly" provocative!!! French artist Marcel Duchamp being interviewed by Calvin Tomkins:

“I remember asking him, “Since you’ve stopped making art, how do you spend your time?” And he said, “Oh, I’m a breather, a respirateur, isn’t that enough?” He asked, “Why do people have to work? Why do people think they have to work?” He talked about how important it was to really breathe, to live life at a different tempo and a different scale from the way most of us live.”

“Why should man work to live, after all? The poor thing has been put on earth without his permission to be here. He’s forced to be here… That’s our lot on earth, we have to work to breathe. I don’t see why that’s so admirable. I can conceive of a society where the lazies have a place in the sun. My famous thing was to start a home for the lazies — hospice des paresseux. If you are lazy, and people accept you as doing nothing, you have a right to eat and drink and have shelter and so forth. There would be a home in which you would do all this for nothing. The stipulation would be that you cannot work. If you begin to work you would be sacked immediately.”

On his principle that people shouldn’t have to work: “A mother generally gives and never takes from her child except affection. In the family there is more giving than taking. But when you go beyond the concept of the family, you find the need for equivalences. If you give me a flower, I give you a flower. That is an equivalent. Why? If you want to give, you give. If you want to take, you take. But society won’t let you, because society is based on that exchange called money, or barter.”

On the differences between art and science: “I don’t know why we should have such reverence for science. It’s a very nice occupation, but nothing more. It has no noblesse to it. It’s just a practical form of activity, to make better Coca-Cola and so forth. It’s always utilitarian. In other words, it hasn’t got the gratuitous attitude that art has, in any case.”

“I don’t believe in art. I believe in the artist.”

Duchamp believed slower work resulted in better work. “I produced so little and everything I produced took me quite a long time.”

To be noted: Ironcially enough, I got this from James Clear, an American who often writes about the science of discipline in Art. See the whole article here:

http://jamesclear.com/book-summaries/marcel-duchamp-the-afternoon-interviews

Stay on the F*ing bus!

AWESOME article for us CREATIVES!!!!  - [From James Clear]

The Helsinki Bus Station Theory - it urges you to not simply do more work, but to do more re-work.

"Minkkinen was born in Helsinki, Finland. In the center of the city there was a large bus station and he began his speech by describing it to the students.

“Some two-dozen platforms are laid out in a square at the heart of the city,” Minkkinen said. “At the head of each platform is a sign posting the numbers of the buses that leave from that particular platform. The bus numbers might read as follows: 21, 71, 58, 33, and 19. Each bus takes the same route out of the city for at least a kilometer, stopping at bus stop intervals along the way.” 

He continued, “Now let’s say, again metaphorically speaking, that each bus stop represents one year in the life of a photographer. Meaning the third bus stop would represent three years of photographic activity. Ok, so you have been working for three years making platinum studies of nudes. Call it bus #21.”

“You take those three years of work to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the curator asks if you are familiar with the nudes of Irving Penn. His bus, 71, was on the same line. Or you take them to a gallery in Paris and are reminded to check out Bill Brandt, bus 58, and so on. Shocked, you realize that what you have been doing for three years others have already done.” 

“So you hop off the bus, grab a cab—because life is short—and head straight back to the bus station looking for another platform.”

“This time,” he said, “you are going to make 8×10 view camera color snapshots of people lying on the beach from a cherry picker crane. You spend three years at it and three grand and produce a series of works that elicit the same comment. Haven’t you seen the work of Richard Misrach? Or, if they are steamy black and white 8x10s of palm trees swaying off a beachfront, haven’t you seen the work of Sally Mann?”

“So once again, you get off the bus, grab the cab, race back and find a new platform. This goes on all your creative life, always showing new work, always being compared to others.”

“Stay on the F**king Bus”
Minkkinen paused. He looked out at the students and asked, “What to do?”

“It’s simple,” he said. “Stay on the bus. Stay on the f**king bus. Because if you do, in time, you will begin to see a difference.”

“The buses that move out of Helsinki stay on the same line, but only for a while—maybe a kilometer or two. Then they begin to separate, each number heading off to its own unique destination. Bus 33 suddenly goes north. Bus 19 southwest. For a time maybe 21 and 71 dovetail one another, but soon they split off as well. Irving Penn is headed elsewhere.”

“It’s the separation that makes all the difference,” Minkkinen said. “And once you start to see that difference in your work from the work you so admire—that’s why you chose that platform after all—it’s time to look for your breakthrough. Suddenly your work starts to get noticed. Now you are working more on your own, making more of the difference between your work and what influenced it. Your vision takes off. And as the years mount up and your work begins to pile up, it won’t be long before the critics become very intrigued, not just by what separates your work from a Sally Mann or a Ralph Gibson, but by what you did when you first got started!”

“You regain the whole bus route in fact. The vintage prints made twenty years ago are suddenly re-evaluated and, for what it is worth, start selling at a premium. At the end of the line—where the bus comes to rest and the driver can get out for a smoke or, better yet, a cup of coffee—that’s when the work is done. It could be the end of your career as an artist or the end of your life for that matter, but your total output is now all there before you, the early (so-called) imitations, the breakthroughs, the peaks and valleys, the closing masterpieces, all with the stamp of your unique vision.”

“Why? Because you stayed on the bus.”

http://jamesclear.com/stay-on-the-bus
For the whole article

The Painting Curve

I find this to be really good advice for us artists, even if I haven't always followed it...

"My painting teacher used to talk about the “painting curve,” a line that looks like the letter U. He said that when you begin a painting (or other form of art), you are at the top of the U. Things look clean and wonderful in the beginning. But as you develop a piece of work, it often gets messier; that is the bottom of the painting curve. He insisted that working through the bottom of the painting curve—the point at which we think our work looks horrible or awkward—is critical to making good work. Working through the complexities of a piece to the point where it looks and feels wonderful again—rising back up to the top of the U—helps develop your technique as well as your unique voice."

From a sample of a book: "Art, Inc: the essential guide for building your career as an artist."

An Act of Rebellion

"When any of us meet someone who rejects dominant norms and values, we feel a little less crazy for doing the same. Any act of rebellion or non-participation, even on a very small scale, is therefore a political act."

Charles Eisenstein  -- The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible
http://charleseisenstein.net

"Mastering Creativity" by James Clear

Found this great page/blog from James Clear:

1. Transform Your Habits (Download this 45-page guide, for free)
2. Forget About Setting Goals. Focus on This Instead.
3. This Coach Improved Every Tiny Thing by 1 Percent and Here’s What Happened
4. How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the “2–Minute Rule”
5. Successful People Start Before They Feel Ready
6. Identity-Based Habits: How to Actually Stick to Your Goals This Year
7. Haters and Critics: How to Deal with People Judging You and Your Work
8. The Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting
9. How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the “Seinfeld Strategy”
10. How to Stay Focused When You Get Bored Working Toward Your Goals
11. Photo Essay: The Northern Lights in Norway (and the “Do It Now” Motto)

http://jamesclear.com/archives

Inspiration, motivation, or…?

"Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work." —Chuck Close

Painting Folies - Painting outside the Box

I have decided to create another blog in which I will post my "Process Paintings".  See former posts for explanations of what these are.

I am excited to announce the birth of:

 "Painting Follies" - Painting outside the box

"What would you paint if you ALLOWED yourself be TOTALLY FREE to play and express yourself without concern for the result...? This blog is a sample of what I have painted. Some I hate, some I love, some I don't know... but none of that matters. What matters is that in those moments, for the time it takes to do a full painting, I am not thinking... I JUST LET GO... I paint outside the box :-) "

http://paintingfolies.blogspot.com

More play...

Temperas on Paper

22 x 30 inches

Letting go...
What happens when we really let go of all plans and judgements and allow ourselves to play with colors and creativity, like young children do?
See former posts...

Medusa

Little by little, I think I may be adding these guys i.e. "Process Paintings" that are not about "beauty & result" but as the name indicates, about "PROCESS". See former posts for "explanations". Perhaps I need to reorganize  this blog and create a page just for these...

Temperas on Paper

22 x 30 inches

Letting Go...

No, I do not "like" this painting, anymore than the one from yesterday. But it's NOT the point. The point is to let go... For me, it means that I dip my brush in a color that attracts me in the very moment, with the brush size that attracts me, and I make marks that FEEL GOOD. Not about looking good, but feeling good. Not about thinking but feeling. Often, it can be very repetitive, because this is "what feeling wants". It is entirely about the process and ABSOLUTELY NOT about the RESULT. Just as it was when we were little children, prior to all judgments... before the world's judgements became ours... before we acquired certain tastes, aesthetic likes and dislikes.

Temperas on paper

22 x 30

Relief at last...

Temperas on Paper

22" x 30"

I hadn't done one of those in a long time... This painting is not about beauty, it is not about a result, even if I put it here. It is about the pure process of playing with colors without judgement. Without trying to control what the mind thinks will look good or bad. Instead, it is about pure creative self-expression - in the innocent way we approached it as children. It is about freeing our inner-child.

-- And "what does that do?" you may ask...

With practice, it helps us release, as we get in touch with the present moment. It ultimately brings relief to our energy field, emotions, stress... and it often reignites the creative flow in us - it has a very similar effect and process as the "Morning Pages" (See "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron) only with paints and colors instead of words, which is even more direct, less mental. But the 2 are not interchangeable. They each play a role, fulfilling specific "needs" for the physical, emotional, and mental bodies.

These 2 processes - "Morning Pages" and "Process Painting" do wonder for the Creative Life!

It may take a while to get used to this form of self-expression. Because a lot of judgments come up at first. And for me, and for many, this is the first step to a deep healing process. If you have never done this, be warned: It will very likely bring up frustration in you if you are used - like I was/am - to wanting to control everything. LOL!

On another level, it had a big and freeing impact on my way of approaching Painting - the "other" paintings I mean. It was like finally receiving my own approval and allowance to explore and play without fear. It eventually created a fresher and richer body of work. Something more uniquely "me".

To learn more I recommend reading "Life, Paint and Passion" by Michele Cassou and Stewart Cubley.
Michele is the pioneer of this method of what is often referred to as "Process Painting" ; and she is also the author of the perhaps more famous "Pt Zero". I personally preferred "Life, Paint and Passion". But both are excellent (available on Amazon). Pt Zero is very practical in that it teaches us how to ask ourselves simple questions in order to let go of the inner-judge who creates blocks - so we are able to continue to express, paint... and allow the freedom and feel exhilaration of playing with colors - or other forms of expression.

A lot of my entries in this blog have quotes from Michele Cassou. They can be applied to many creative processes and forms of expression - not just painting.

Letters to a Young Poet...

"[...] Yes, but everything assigned to us is a challenge; nearly everything that matters is a challenge, and everything matters."

Rainer Maria Rilke

What makes you excited about your work?

Oh, this is a good one...! It's nice to be let into another artist's wisdom when it resonates... :-)

"I don’t think that one develops a style consciously. It happens naturally with work. By painting (or sculpting, cooking, writing or gardening … enter creative pursuit here) it will emerge. The more you listen to your inner voice, and the surge of joy you get whenever you create something that you love, the more it will emerge. If I find myself attracted to another artist’s work it is often because they have successfully captured something that I too am working toward. We can learn from others by figuring out what we like (or don’t like about their work).

However, if an artist listens too closely to colleagues, critiques, teachers or patrons this voice might be muted. The more that we listen to ourselves, the more the individual comes out on the canvas. One cannot help but to have “style” emerge which is as individual as they are. Just as we all have distinct handwriting and personality traits; we have ways of handling paint, imagery and ideas, and having it “sing” for us. Our journey (life and painting experiences) contributes to our style.

This also means that style will change over time. There will be threads that will continue throughout, but our experience changes and this will slowly creep into our work.

I think the big issues are to pay attention and do what makes you excited about your work. When listening to others, also listen to what your heart says about their advice. Most importantly, is to keep working."

Carolee Clark

http://caroleeclark.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/daily-painting-poppies-on-clare-street-contemporary-urban-scene/

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

Not a Goal, Not a Label...

" You are not a painter - you just paint."

Michele Cassou
"Life, Paint and Passion"

The Mystery of Yourself

"As children we were taught how to do everything: how to read, how to study, how to be polite. We have been bombarded with the 'right way' to do things. So now we are approaching art and we think we should know how to do it. Yet art is the only thing that we should not know how to do!

Art is the place not to know.

To create is to move into the unknown - to move into the mystery of yourself, to have feeling, to awaken buried perceptions, to be alive and free without worrying about the result. But the mind is conditioned to think it wants a nice painting, a nice tree, beautiful scenery. No! Maybe you want monsters. Maybe you want chaos, maybe you want a mess.

Maybe 

it will feel really good 

to paint 

an ugly painting. 

Maybe that would open your being much more than a masterpiece."

Michèle Cassou

"Life, Paint, and Passion"

What's REALLY you...

"What you can rely on you've never relied on in your life. What you can't trust you've been trying to trust all your life. What you've been trusting has never been you. What you've been ignoring has always been you. Try to trust what's really you and see what happens."

Ra Uru Hu, the founder of Human Design

YOU Are No Mistake

"Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you'd think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise."

Lewis Thomas, Physician and Essayist (1913-1993)

This World is YOUR Own Reality

"We've also been given a belief, in Phase 1 of The Human Game, that a powerful success strategy is to model the behavior of other people, that if you do what they do, the way they do it, you can produce similar results. That belief is particularly seductive if we have great respect for the person being modeled and really want what he or she appears to have. But neither belief is supportive to you in Phase 2.

[...]

"In Phase 2, there is absolutely no relationship 

between 

what happens for you 

and 

what happens for someone else."

From: "Busting Loose From the Money Game - Mind Blowing Strategies For Changing the Rules of a Game You Can't Win."
by Robert Scheinfeld

Remember who you are...

.  .  .
"As soon as you trust yourself, 

you will know how to live."
.  .  .

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)

Being Without Attachment

From Story Waters - You Are God. Get Over It!

"When you release attachment there will be much that will leave your life. These are all things that have run their course and are ready to move on. They are experiences that you were artificially sustaining with your effort. To release attachment is to face reality with clarity and allow it to be what it is, rather than what you were trying to force it to be. Initially this may be painful, but through the allowance of that pain will come freedom from addiction. In revealing a hole that you were artificially filling, you are offered the opportunity to see, and thereby heal the wound which the hole represents.

Your attachments act as temporary bandages which hold you from seeing your wounds. To let them go is to allow your wounds to breathe, heal, and be reintegrated into your being. Though letting go of your attachments may be painful, it is not the pain of loss, it is the pain that you shut down when the original wound was created. The only loss that ever took place was the loss of the aspect of your being that was shut inside the wound. To let go of your attachments is to regain something, not lose it."

Complete Allowance

By Story Waters
From "Love Is Awake"

"It can be seen here that awakened love is not necessarily even about liking something; it is about honoring its right to exist and express itself as it chooses.

Awakened love is about giving complete unconditional allowance. You personally may choose not to do something. But when you do not honor the rights of others to do it you step on your own right to exercise your will freely, and that is to say you limit your being."