The Conscious- Unconscious

It’s not new news to you all who read my newsletter writings when I say:
Our deepest selves show up when we paint.

Especially when we liberate ourselves from the grips of “how to”
And just allow for our unconscious to come forth, without our minds as the leading agenda.

 We can easily bounce the walls with a set of techniques we use over and over- even adding new sets of techniques, hoping they will lead us to the fertile grounds of our genuine voice through imagination.
I’m not saying it can’t happen, but our breakthroughs usually come through putting in the brush hours - making hours- “just being” hours…
And the deep frustrating hours usually occur right before a breakthrough.

Which lead to non-sensical moments- like when we use the wrong brush on a foreign surface.
You get the drift.
Poet/ writer Rainer Maria Rilke’s, in Letters to a Young Poet, writes:

“To let each impression and each embryo of a feeling come to completion, entirely in itself, in the dark, in the inexpressible, the unconscious beyond the reach of one’s own intelligence… this alone is what it means to live as an artist.”

I like to think… of it as not so much the thoughts that come to us through a reactionary feeling
A thought- Felt
But as a practice of a feeling - Thought.


To become conscious of our creative, genuine voice doesn’t always happen when we master a technique, but when we have gathered our clusters of thoughts and feelings,
pulled up a chair with this rich emotional brew, and like a loving mother have listened - Assimilated, and turned them back into the world to connect the dots through our own precious, quirky selves.

I love paintings that leave me with more questions than answers.
A painting that does not tell me its conclusion and leaves me wanting more-
A painting that keeps me coming back for more.

For me, a good painting carries Presence- a depth of feeling where I can feel a part of the soul who made it embedded within the paint itself.

For more on reading a painting in-depth, check out this essay by  artist Jill Trappler- Reading a Painting.

What would you look like to see in an art class that encourages your creative juices to flow?

How do you connect to your inner muse?

Please leave your comments below:

Be Well,

Studio Time