The power of your intuition

Somewhere Out There #1

8x8 inches

Oil & Cold Wax

I wish I had been brought up in a home where intuition had been given a place at the dinner table conversation.

My parents were practical, pragmatic intellectuals and intuition, while not mocked, wasn't given respect, either. 

I always believed I was adopted and at age eleven, my mother confessed, "That's half true. Bill is your step-father, he adopted you when we got married. " (I was four). 

And if wasn't so physically obvious that we are related, I would have been convinced she was telling a half truth.

My mother and I are polar opposites. She is a realist. I am a dreamer. She is an atheist. I am spiritualist. She is rationally cautious. I am daringly impulsive. Which I realize now, as an artist, you have to be in order to be in touch with your intuition.

In Ian Roberts book, Creative Authenticity, he points out if we ignore our intuition it becomes smaller and smaller until it's a soft whisper we can no longer hear. 

I desire to feed and fuel that rich voice. I give her the head seat at my table as I listen to her with concentrated attention and bathe her in adoration. Let her ROAR.

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself. Alan Alda

Child's Play...do,be,do,be, do be

Child's Play

11 x 14 inches

Acrylic 

Do something. Then do something to that. Then do something else to that. And eventually you'll have something. Jasper Johns

I was having tea with a friend and we were talking art and the work of making art. Suddenly she came out with, " Do be do be do be." I thought she was going sing. Then I realized I had the emphasis wrong: 

Do. Be. Do. Be. Do. Be. 

Do it. Be it. Do it. Be it. 

If your goal is to be an artist, you have to be in your studio, making art. If your goal is to be a chef, you have to be in the kitchen, cooking. Your first efforts may not be that great, but as you continue to do, you get better and eventually master that skill. And with that mastery comes a certain bravery to go out beyond and stretch or even break the boundaries. 

Picasso was in his studio working on a piece when a friend came in and said, "That doesn't look very good." Picasso replied, "Of course it doesn't. It's the first one I've done."

That story should be on every artist's wall.  If you've been practicing art for some time  and believe your skill level should yield a certain  quality of work, and you courageously step out and try something new, and your initial efforts yield crap, remember, even Picasso didn't create a masterpiece every time he approached a canvas. 

The worst thing that can happen to an artist is losing that excitement and sense of wonder when we enter our studio. That's why we are driven to try new things. We want to push ourselves out of the mundane of safety and thrust ourselves into the realm of child's play. And waiting for us, in that creative sandbox, is our authentic genius. 

Do. Be. Do. Be. Do. Be.