Anyone who "has" to create knows that feeling of not being able to. After awhile, everything feels "off." You get restless, irritable, hungry for something you can't quite find. It's like staring into an empty refrigerator.
But the solution is easy: all you have to do is create something, and relief floods in.
Every artist knows this feeling. These days, scientists can prove it, too. "Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us" by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross shares current studies on the benefits of the arts. "When the arts become a regular practice--the way you might improve nutrition, increase exercise, and prioritize sleep--you unleash an innate tool that helps you navigate the peaks and valleys of your inner life." As it turns out, our brain literally re-wires itself when we engage in art-making. The authors are creating a new field titled "NeuroArts" to study the positive effects of and advocate for using art as a prescriptive model of health.
1st black and white layer of a client painting, based on Vermeer's The Milkmaid
What it feels like to do art requires art (and poetry) to explain it. The Irish poet John O'Donohue once said, "Art is the essence of awareness."
Making art just makes me feel… whole. Like everything makes sense. Like all my worries slide down the scale of importance, and what rises to the top is the need to create. Taking a painting from start to finish mimics the act of Creation itself, like a butterfly starting its journey from cellular intention within the goo of caterpillar death to its final phase of cracking open the chrysalis to fly away.
It's like describing a mango to someone who's never tried one. You can only eat one to know what it tastes like.
Progress on color....
In last week's newsletter, I mentioned my "aha' moment in the midst of chaos at Chicago O'Hare: that I have a system of creating that involves three parts, Creating-Connecting-Sharing. The creating is the fundamental part of the equation. And yet it's not enough (for me) without the other two parts. I create because I have an unstoppable urge—and if I ignore it, I get sick. But it has a specific function in my life: it helps me make connections that make life worth living. And sharing it with others completes the cycle of creation.
More about that in the next two newsletters. I'm putting the pieces together in a new training program based on Creating-Connecting-Sharing. It's a culmination of what I've learned from two years of teaching, forty years of learning, and a lifetime of creating. This is what helps me complete the cycle of creativity: molding the pieces into a shareable gift.
May your day be filled with creativity, joy, and peace!
And the final piece!
Art Heals
I've shared Tove Jansson's work before, but not this one: her last mural before she died. The Finnish artist believed in the power of art to heal. She balanced a lifelong painting practice with writing and illustrating children's stories. Her Moomin series are beloved classics in Finland, and are popular around the world. Developed in response to the horrors of World War II, the Moomin world is safe and comfortable, a place where everyone is accepted for who they are.
Detail from Jansson's "Summer, spring, autumn (Seasons)" mural.
