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Will continue the journey

I can truly identify with Jerry Wennstrom in his book The Inspired Heart. I

Do You Feel Me quilt, 57 x 36 inches  click image to enlarge

learned to trust the Universe and my own intuition a few years ago. I am happier with the outcome of my work. I love who I am as a person, and I see things around me in a much clearer light. I shall stay on that path and continue my journey.

(RG note) Thanks Edna, and thanks to all who wrote similar notes identifying with the trials and triumphs of Jerry's remarkable book. This letter brought in an enormous response. So many valuable thoughts. In a way it makes me sad that we can't put them all in here—but there would not be time to get on with what we do best. Thank you so much for this connectivity and this friendship.

Mind cleared to listen

Although not a painter, I have done this twice during my lifetime as a writer. First, after a complete breakdown and breakthrough when I realized all I had written was not a real voice but one I wished I had. Then, more recently, all of the work I rendered during that long period of suffering through the healing. I now enter into writing as into a Quaker meeting - neither expecting to speak nor expecting to not speak. It is very important for me to clear my mind and listen. Then, the hands work on the translation.

Past art a security blanket

This morning, after a breakthrough in my "artistic" thinking, I went to my cupboard of saved works and began to toss. Ninety percent were experimental, failed, dreadful paintings that have been gathering dust for at least 10 years. I was feeling euphoric! Gone was the need to hold on to paintings that were clearly meant for no other eyes but mine. I now believe they were like a security blanket of sorts - proof that I painted.

Then I came in to check my emails, and read today's Genn letter. Serendipitous? Clearly meant for me. I am in the process of a wonderful re-inventing of my work.

Creator from the soul

Discovery of one's self is not always a pretty picture, but more an

Heading Home original painting  click image to enlarge

awareness that you are only you and the sooner you let go of what you wish you were, the sooner you start on an amazing journey. Many artists spend their time trying to be like some other artist, usually someone who has achieved recognition by creating something special in their field – a process, technique, unusual application of mediums, etc. You can certainly learn from others, but you create from your soul. We should focus on giving more credit to the "self" who is trying to be expressive, rather than attempting to follow so closely the techniques of others. The freedom to be one's self is a precious thing. We should cease parroting and grab the ring of creativity that is ours alone… and go forward on our personal journey to the stars!

Trouble with goofballitis

Modern, decorative art is now too impersonal and thus tells little or

Venus Fauve original painting  click image to enlarge

nothing anymore. Much of it is not far from house painting. A painter who hides under an abstract facility is truly the one who does not take any risk. Too much use of gray matter chokes off sensitivity and thus the truth.

(RG note) Thanks Louis. Many more ideas on this subject can be found in our Resource of Art Quotations under the categories Abstraction and Modernism.

Big lie of our times

Perhaps the freeing of our spirit from the boundaries set from our own conditioning would open up the Us and not the They? Could we reshape our universe with the thought that we are the all of Us? Would breaking free of our conditioning lead to original thought, our own individuality, therefore creating a world of harmony? If we all sing the same tune you can't have harmony. If you don't have harmony life is out of balance, which is where we are today - hustle and bustle moving so fast - because we believe that is the way it is supposed to be done. I call it the "big lie" of our times. We separate ourselves from each other through fear. Fear causes us to war against ourselves.

Turning over a new leaf

One of the secrets of personal growth is in the reflections we artists have in reviewing our life in terms of saved art work, journals, photography and any other attempts in capturing the steps and leaps along this magnificent human journey… the good, bad, highs, lows, beautiful and ugly.

Inspiration, spirituality, solitude, intuition, creativity, practice, play and reflection are such keys to wisdom… aren't we blessed to recognize these necessary phases of art and craft which continually fill our soul? What more can we give to others than to be the best we can be at being our natural, vulnerable, mortal selves! I'm off for a walk in the woods with hopes of turning over a new, brightly covered leaf!

Embracing the free fall

My husband Chaim and I started reading The Artist's Way and doing the

Bedrock mixed media with oil pastels  click image to enlarge

writing that Julia Cameron recommends every morning and our world is turning upside down. This is not the first time for me so I am attempting to embrace the free fall, knowing that everything has a time and season. Now I still am able to work in the studio off and on and, as usual with stress, the work comes out interesting in such times. So I am on the alert when I read letters like yours to keep going in this new direction with a positive attitude rather than wallowing in any kind of despair, the great temptation when things are seemingly falling apart.

Voice of the spirit

I believe that creativity is a product of your soul's voice, your true voice, not the programmed, bound by rules or conventions, but rather that expression that can only happen when we become totally aware of our surroundings – of the natural world of which we are part of, and from which we emerge, before we are absorbed by the artificial, constructed world of cities. One's art should be the extension of oneself, a reflection of the spirit or soul, that can only be when one is with the world and the universe. Painting, music, literature are the vibrations of the collective human conscience in its different forms. Creativity is the voice of the spirit.

Shining star finds trauma, hard work

My own cathartic moment happened when I was just out of High School.

Autumn Glory watercolor painting  click image to enlarge

I was talented (or so I thought), I had been the best artist at my High School (I hadn't noticed that I was the only one) and I was sure that I would be a shining star at the University. There I was thrown in with a lot of other students just like me. None of us shone too much, but in each other's company we didn't notice. Then one day I walked into the gallery. It was an exhibit of the Masters Degree candidates. Years later I learned from one of the professors that that group was the best group of students he had seen in 30 years at the university. When I saw their work it was inescapably clear how far below their level I really was, and how little talent I had. It was devastating! I wanted to crawl into bed, assume a pre-natal position and turn the electric blanket up to 10. Massive trauma! I wondered if I should go home, turn on the gas and put my head in the oven. But art was all I wanted to do so I decided that from then on I would have to work harder than anyone else because I had the least amount of talent. I have never become as brilliant a star as I was just out of High School, but I have learned to love working hard at my craft.

(RG note) Carl is the author of Painting With Your Artist's Brain.

Privilege of art-making

It's not a bad life, marked by an occasional fond embrace or the smell of

Issac Resting on the Mountain pastel on paper  click image to enlarge

falling leaves. Then there is the glimmer of hope when your hand makes something that begins to work. Sometimes I wonder why I love this madness and can't be like other people who keep a normal, steady day-job. I like being able to breathe and drink the space and shapes around me. I enjoy thinking about the teaming microcosms bursting with energy, there, not chance but design. For me, paint and materials are combined not by chance, but by my design. It is a privilege to be an artist though sometimes a little isolated from the bottom line. Can one make enough to take care for those one loves in a way that will meet their needs? Is it prudent to be an artist-monk reveling in life's beauties, living a life of poverty, while neglecting the needs of others? Can one value looking at something made with ardour, over the commercial picture of the perfect life?

(RG note) Thanks Judith. Our world is loaded with evidence that lives can be lived in goodness and generosity, while making by hand daily reflections of honest beauty that others may covet and are willing to pay well for. Poverty is not a prerequisite. For more on this see the clickback Your thinking words.

Uncommitted and not alone

I work a full-time job as a digital retouch artist for an ad agency and also, with my wife, own and teach in a yoga studio and am also a massage therapist. As you might imagine this more than fills the hours in the week.

I have dabbled in various media since I was in school for art and then graphic design in the early '70s. I always have a sketchbook and drawing tools in my car without often utilizing them. While I have vacillated over which medium was "right" for me over the years, as I get older I keep coming back to drawing and my desire to have at least that as my form of expression and have given up all thoughts of the idea that I will ever have a "career" as an artist. My art would become an adjunct to my personal journey in yoga, which appears to be virtually the same path as that of the author you cited. As I reduce my life little by little to simple components (as simple as it gets in 21st Century suburbia) a pencil and some paper feels like the right choice for me. But still I struggle with the issues of time, quality and quantity. Every time I pick up a pencil it feels like the first time and my marks are unsure and then, occasionally, a moment of grace when the line flows through me. This is what I am aiming for.

I just felt the need to share that as I am sure I am not alone in having reached midlife and never been able to firmly commit to life as an artist but, at the same time, unable and unwilling to let it go.

True guru is built-in

The exile that leads me to the silence where I find the satguru, the true guru within seems to be built into my life. The loss of my aunt when I was about to turn 18 was one such occasion. Going off to Italy my senior year in college was another. Moving to NYC for graduate school and a life that reveres culture also lead me to some great depths of the soul. Then a big shake of my self-perception was having children. I don't think I have experienced anything quite as powerful in testing my self-worth and my beliefs about my purpose and this life. Now when I slip into dark moments it's not so overwhelming, it is more a time to unravel, slow down and reconnect with something that wants my attention. Being an artist is a calling and a blessing. I feel it is one of the main threads that unite all the elements in my life together. Being a sacred activity, creating art is reflexive of other practices like meditation and yoga. It gives me the space to strengthen my capacity to be present.

A jump off the cliff

A year ago my husband, a batik painter, and I, a watercolorist, jumped off

Talking With the Spirits watercolor painting  click image to enlarge

the cliff to see if we could get this art "ship" to fly. We sold our condo, quit our day jobs, got rid of everything except essential things, stored them in a locker and set off for a 6 month art intensive in central Mexico. After that, we took 10 weeks to go round the planet to visit various cultures of interest as a means of inspiration and head-clearing. Now back in Mexico we're preparing for a joint show of our work and sending out applications for art fairs, additional shows and seeking gallery representation. Sometimes it feels like we're in free-fall while at others like we're beginning to soar. It's scary to take such a drastic leap of faith but at the same time I think it's reaffirming of who we are at our depths. We're learning more about ourselves and also becoming better in our skills as artists. Indeed, giving it all our heart.

Art creation became spiritual practice

After a 6-year career as an internationally published display designer I

Leather Fetish #8: The Same... Only Different... original quilt  click image to enlarge

burned out and quit, primarily because during that time I only produced 3 pieces of art. It was 1978. In 1985 I struggled through a suicidal depression because fiber work takes too long to create and I wasn't making enough money to even exist on. And at that time I also lost many friends toAIDS. So after my early trashing of a narrow-minded religion, I put myself on my spiritual path in an attempt to survive.

I was relentless, reading everything I could beg or borrow as I couldn't actually afford books, classes or seminars. And because my need to heal from an abusive childhood was so great, I began using the tarot on myself. I evolved. In doing so every single facet of my art creation experience became my spiritual practice.

I healed myself. I opened myself up to a direct connection to the Divine. And I am at last offering to help others clear out their own creative blocks. Anybody want an intuitive tarot reading?

Invitation to a mutual burning

Four years ago I was working on a children's book. Thought it was a

Silk oil painting  click image to enlarge

great idea. Worked for over two years and produced 32 detailed paintings. The problem was, although I had great looking artwork, my writing sucked. I went through a process where I had to grieve the idea, accept the result and ultimately destroy all the work. It was not until the work was gone from my sight that the cloud of disappointment rose and began a re-birth of work. The healing process was not without its ups and downs, but I have picked up my bruised ego and made the experience work for me. The courage it took to destroy the work was high, but probably the most critical time in my artist's life thus far.

As spiritual as the experience was, one day I would like to share it with the public. Any artists want to get together and burn their work together? What a statement of quality!

Three phases of creating

There has to be character. Some bit of the artist's character or soul has to

Beach original painting  click image to enlarge

go into a painting. There are at least three phases to consider when creating fine art—feeling, seeing and drawing: