Painting as food for the word
Becoming my landscape
Feeling stuck
I was posting here fairly regularly, complete with artwork. I was also painting everyday. Then my sister came to visit for a few weeks, and I had several deadlines. My practice of starting everyday by painting suffered. First it was a day, then a week, then a month. I didn’t stop painting completely since I was working on a project that required it, but I lost the practice of starting my day in a creative space.
Thinking of things to say became more challenging. For blog posts, facebook status, and twitter. I found myself sinking more deeply into silence. Yesterday I resorted to asking what to write about on twitter. I got some good ideas, but the well was still dry. Words were not flowing.
Painting is food for my writing
Writing is hard. Paint flows. Yet I find myself spending most of my days writing (or trying to), and not giving myself the space to paint or do other visually creative things. I still fight the inner demons that judge the visual work as not really working, or just playing. Despite the art degree, selling work, and other marks of ‘real’ artists.
I know the words flow easier for me when I start with the visual. My whole company specializes in the power of visuals to facilitate conversations and insights. Yet I don’t consistently allow myself to do it. I still battle the inner demons, the messages from other times, people, and places.
Recommitting to the practice of painting
I know I am more creative in everything when I avoid email and start the day with painting. This is my public committment to returning to the daily practice of putting the brush to the page. Its not about creating great art, but rather creating great creative space. Sending the universe the message that the creative is priority. So I begin with day one of returning to the paint.
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23 Responses to “Painting as food for the word”
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I love your painting, love the colors and the contrast. Beautiful piece.
It must be hard to do both painting and writing and the many other things that life requires.
Christine, your paintings speak to me so powerfully–I respond to them with my whole body, heart, mind, and spirit. To me, they are poetry made visible. Thanks so much for this gorgeous painting. It’s like a gong that summons me to the day.
Love, Hiro
@Maia:
Thank you Maia, I always appreciate it when other artists love my work. I suspect no matter which things we pick out in life, it is always hard to balance all the things we want to do with what we need to do. If you have found the magic answer, however, do share it!
You could consider it “hygiene” like brushing your teeth every morning.
You could lock your keyboard in the trunk of your car with the key hidden under your paints. No painting, no keyboard.
You could just take the painting and yourself seriously enough to block out the time as an appointment on your calendar — in ink and capital letters.
You could do a lot of things, but it all starts with one step, picking up the brush. Just like you did today. As you will do again tomorrow.
I can so completely relate to this. So this struck a huge ring-me-like-a-bell chord.
When I neglect my painting, everything else starts to wither. And it’s so easy to do, even though I love it so much.
It’s like this is at the roots of everything else I do – creating the great creative space, as you so beautifully said.
Thanks for the reminder. It’s timely. And appreciated.
You rock.
Ahhhh…I love the idea of starting the day with painting rather than email. I’m not much of a painter, yet, but it makes me wonder whether I need a corner of my office that is the art corner. I’d like to learn how to use different art media, and how fun to think about experimenting every morning, even if it’s just for 5 minutes. Thanks for your reflections!!!
@Hiro Boga:
I think you are my number one fan! Even though I am working to honor the process of painting, the trained artist in me still gets fed by other people liking what I do. So thank you, it helps propel me forward in the moments when I encounter doubt and feeling I am wasting time.
@Fabeku:
Now I just need my Fabeku sound to facilitate the creative expression soundtrack to complete my morning session. Can’t wait…..
@Barbara Martin:
I’ve been experimenting. Trying to train the cat to guard the keyboard until I paint. Not working so hot, instead she insists on drinking my paint water and only showing interest in the keyboard when I am trying to type.
I can say I have painted everyday this week. I’m getting back into the groove, despite a full week of meetings, which are often the slippery slope. If I know I will only have a short time to catch up on emails before I leave the office, it gets harder to take the time to paint.
@Gretchen Wegner:
Yes to creative play corner! Creativity in whatever form creates magic, and we can all use more of that.
That is an Accomplishment! The groove itself is far more important than we realize, sometimes. Once you routinely think of yourself as “a person who paints every morning first thing” then it begins to become an ingrained habit. Keep on keeping on!
Congratulations on returning to this creative practice, and thanks for the insight into your struggles and ways of approaching it. It’s good food for thought as it’s nigh time I make a similar return to my own practice.
I noticed you on the WordCamp PDX registration list. Maybe we’ll connect in person there. A friend and I are making the trip down from BC.
Tzaddi! Who all’s going to WCPDX? I signed up… Christine, are you also?
Yay! Glad you are back to painting. I love this piece, it just sort of *hums* visually, not sure how to explain it but I have this great reaction to it
Awesome!
Hey Barbara! It was a link on the eventbrite reg page that brought me here (this time). You can see who-all registered here:
http://wcpdx.eventbrite.com/
Looking forward to meeting you there!
@barbara and @Tzaddi Yes, I will be at Wordcamp PDX, so lets connect there for sure. We can sit in the back and paint…..
I love when you share your paintings here with us – they are truly beautiful. They always fill me with a sense of joy.
Hoping you’ll continue to share the fruits of your painting-first-thing-in-the-morning labors…
@victoria thanks for the encouragement. Even after all these years, pushing the button to publish a post with my visual work is hard. I’ve always thought of it as private process work, so I’m just starting to see it speaks to others too.
Christine, its taken me two years to finally find the mecca of painting and art in Munich. Of course, it isn’t in Munich, but I have a car. I went there last week with Isabelle and we managed to escape with only a 65 Euro purchase – most of which was my very first easle (I’m forgetting my English spelling) and several canvases. I decided not to worry about brushes or paint and to use whatever I had to just create. I also bought some blank postcards and a blank stamp and carving tool. I put a lot of stuff back and decided to focus – which can be hard. If you share your paintings (which I LOVE) I’ll share mine
Hang in there. keep it flowin’
Susanne
@susanne Oh those art supply stores can be so tempting. I have gotten in trouble in them a few times in my day. Yea to painting. Yes, I want to see what you are doing
Kia ora e Christine!
Every time I click on my subscription to your blog on my RSS reader I see this wonderful, powerful picture. It glows with vibrant sunlight, and I see hills of sleeping contented giants.
You are right about what art can do for writing.
I use it a lot and never thought about the process as you have. My ploy, when I have an idea for a blog post, is to first design a picture to go with the idea. It’s always digital – no paint
. Most of my blog posts this year have started that way and many of last year’s too.
What I found was that I spend as much time on the picture as I do writing the post. I don’t spend THAT much time on the picture, but when it’s done the rest (words) seems to flow at the same pace.
It is difficult to write to a blank page. I know this of old. So much better to write to a vision brought from the mind while contemplating the whole thing.
Catchya later
I think many of us struggle with some sense of things not being “real work”. Our culture has become very narrowly focused on an instrumental definition of “work” that is tied to “the thing that earns you money”.
But a life includes more than this. And the most important things are sometimes more abstract like “creativity” or “inspiration” or “conceptual understanding”. Getting there isn’t about sitting down and working efficiently on an instrumental task that will lead to that. IT is about working on things that may or may not produce what you think they will and seeing where they lead you.
For you this work is painting. It is good that you recognize it’s importance in your ability to do any other kind of work. ANd to give it pride of place in your daily schedule.
For others it might be something else. But we all need to recognize that sometimes what looks like “wasting time” is absolutely crucial in the longer term.
@Ken Allan:
I had a conversation with an author several years ago. He had written dozens of books, but one stood out for him. He was asked to write the text for a book of photographs, where the layout and sequence was already done. He had to fit the words to the images. It got my attention when he described a kind of feeling like his brain was being inverted to have the images go first. All of his other books were illustrated after the words. Interesting stuff.