I’ve been thinking about this painting for a while now. It appears in my head, in-between moments of diapers and dreaming of sleeping. When that happens, you have one choice, to paint it. It won’t go away. It sticks to the sides of your brain and holds on tight, screaming, hello, remember me, I’m here. But, sometimes it just has to rattle along the road, like the cans on a string that people tie to the cars of newlyweds. And then, you stop, pick up the cans and say, oh yes, hello you. (we’re not talking about actual cans here, people.)
Enter morning pages/or in this case, evening-after-the-kids-are-in-bed-and-the-tea-is-ready pages. This painting was extra noisy today, clamoring for my attention, but there was just so much, SO many thoughts. So much nonsense. Clutter. It’s hard to paint with a cluttered head.
In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron shares the practice of filling three pages of thought first thing in the morning. It helps clear out the extra, noisy, and nonsense, so that you are free and clear to create. I used to be rather dedicated to this and let me tell you, it’s so helpful. Even if you don’t consider yourself a creative person, unleash it all on the paper, hopes, fears, questions, and prayers. Silly thoughts that you start to believe make less sense on paper and they suddenly don’t look as scary as they did floating around you head. Afterwards, you feel calm and uncluttered. You don’t believe me, try it. No one is supposed to read them, you’re not even supposed to go back and reread them. Just write it and leave it alone. Then go live your life.
In my case, I typed rapidly away in the word document until the last noisy little thing rattled its last rattle and then… I painted. I turned on Explosions in the Sky, one of my favorite bands to create to and during the process, I thought it would be fun to share part of the painting with you, which of course turned into something bigger, you know, the message that always comes forward when I talk about art.
Enjoy.
Enter morning pages/or in this case, evening-after-the-kids-are-in-bed-and-the-tea-is-ready pages. This painting was extra noisy today, clamoring for my attention, but there was just so much, SO many thoughts. So much nonsense. Clutter. It’s hard to paint with a cluttered head.
In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron shares the practice of filling three pages of thought first thing in the morning. It helps clear out the extra, noisy, and nonsense, so that you are free and clear to create. I used to be rather dedicated to this and let me tell you, it’s so helpful. Even if you don’t consider yourself a creative person, unleash it all on the paper, hopes, fears, questions, and prayers. Silly thoughts that you start to believe make less sense on paper and they suddenly don’t look as scary as they did floating around you head. Afterwards, you feel calm and uncluttered. You don’t believe me, try it. No one is supposed to read them, you’re not even supposed to go back and reread them. Just write it and leave it alone. Then go live your life.
In my case, I typed rapidly away in the word document until the last noisy little thing rattled its last rattle and then… I painted. I turned on Explosions in the Sky, one of my favorite bands to create to and during the process, I thought it would be fun to share part of the painting with you, which of course turned into something bigger, you know, the message that always comes forward when I talk about art.
Enjoy.
It's lovely. So peaceful.
ReplyDeleteI love that space in the head that comes with decluttering...letting the creative out. Ahhh.