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| © Copyright 2012 Sheryl Karas |
LIFE LESSONS ON THE PATH OF AN ARTIST / SPIRITUAL COUNSELOR AND HEALER
I’ve been diving into the world of paint after many years of doing photography and digital art alone. It’s been a long courageous journey actually, a long winding road starting in childhood. I’ve always wanted to make my living doing art and actually did have a career as a graphic designer and book cover art creator for 25 years before making the choice to switch to spiritual counseling to provide a much needed balance to the artistic life. But the choice to paint has only been briefly touched before. And, as I said on a recent Facebook thread, I never expected it to be such a personal growth experience.
“It SO is!” several fellow artists chimed in. Every choice is, really. Every time we begin something new little chimes go off in our psyches. It can be nice chimes: “Finally, I’m doing what I always wanted to!” Followed in close succession with all the inner criticisms and hopes and fears familiar to our family patterns. Or, perhaps, if we’re open to it -- lessons learned and discoveries made. I’d like to share one or two of that variety right now.
My favorite life lesson -- it must be a favorite because I seem to need to revisit it over and over -- is letting go of the need for perfection and complete control. Good graphic designers get in the habit of controlling every detail of what they do. Computer programs are so good at this kind of thing. Don’t like a color? Change it in an instant! Move something a few inches to the right? No problem. No, no, that’s not right--move it back! No problem again.
Unfortunately, there is no Command Z on a paintbrush, just the tedious prospect of painting over what you did and trying again. That’s not so much fun so it would seem easiest just to keep things simple, keep the choices safe and barely be challenged at all. But something in my soul had other plans.
First I bought the largest canvas I’ve ever painted on -- 30” x 40”. Then I decided to collage a texture on part of it with torn rice paper and use heavy impasto texture gel with a palette knife to get even more dramatic effects--none of which I had ever used before and wasn’t sure I liked once I got started. Then, to top it all off I decided to create a rather garish underpainting in bright pink, yellow and baby blue. Keep in mind this is a forest scene and you’ll understand why the choices made me freak out. The inner perfectionist could not win! At least not easily, especially when it was thwarted at every turn by some inner imp who kept wanting to try something new.
At one point I was attempting to very slowly, carefully and precisely add bright pink textured gel with a palette knife to a thin tree trunk and discovered that, at my level of experience, it simply could not be done. So I let go of precision and started to more freely slap it on and the result was kind of cool. More random, less precisely controlled, allowing for possibility and I ended up with something that more closely approximated the effect I wanted all along. Only better because more than a little serendipity made its way in. Huh, let go, let God? (What a concept.)
But does letting go of control mean letting go of being in charge altogether? That’s the next lesson I’m in the process of learning. Once I got over the shock of it I found myself enjoying the bright yellow, pink and blue from a modern art point of view. Kind of David Hockney-like, if you’re familiar with his work, especially his paintings of trees. But while I like these color choices from an inner child point of view (the imp who took over, I presume) ... I know I won’t be able to put this piece out with pride if I settle for this beginning as an endpoint and let the painting be in charge instead of me. The adult me keeps feeling hamstrung by the colors even though I know they were originally only meant to be an underpainting. I just wanted to paint over the whole thing and start over. But then Paul reminded me that, since I was on the verge of painting over everything anyway, I could use the opportunity to really loosen up and try anything first. Just get wild and creative while taming the colors down. See if I can salvage the thing by not giving up too soon, knowing that if I can’t get to the point of succeeding I haven’t lost anything but a few afternoons and some tubes of paint.
So that’s the next step. To let go, allow for possibility while continuing to choose the general direction in which I intend to head (or be led).
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WHERE TO FIND INFO ABOUT OUR SPIRITUAL COUNSELING AND HEALING PRACTICE
http://www.healingcommunication.com
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http://www.mamaloveproducts.com
http://www.mamalovehealing.etsy.com
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WHERE TO FIND OUR VIDEOS
http://www.youtube.com/user/healerteam
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YOU CAN FIND OUR ARTWORK...
On our brand new Facebook Page... www.facebook.com/paulnsherylart
In our joint Etsy shop... http://www.etsy.com/shop/PaulnSherylArt
In our new prints and poster Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/FutureSoBright
Beautiful Photographic Prints by Paul Hood... http://PaulHood.imagekind.com/
Beautiful Photographic Prints and Artwork by Sheryl Karas... http://sherylkaras.imagekind.com
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