Finding Meaning in the Process

In art school, there was always a pressure for me of knowing exactly why you made the brushstrokes that you did, or picked the colors that you used or why that was put there or even why something wasn’t there. There had to be this existential reason behind everything.

For me, I am all about intuitive process and letting my hands tell me what my heart and soul are thinking. So in the midst of starting a new painting, I may have a feeling of some-sort related to life (like feeling depressed) and that will linger, of course, subconsciously, through the course of creating. But in the current moment, I will choose colors and brush strokes with no particular logic but just to let go and let my nature decide what to do. I get out of my head and get out of my own way and let myself do what I want to do in the moment with no restraints! It’s called complete creative freedom!! It is incredible. Highly recommend.

With this particular painting (pictured above), “Feel”, I was super angry when I started it and my process was to just freaking paint. That was my goal. To get up in there and physically express with paint in my hands and just go ham on the canvas with literally nothing holding me back. It was an incredible experience and was honestly like a therapy session. And now when I look at it, I see a completed thought of anger expressed healthily and the beauty of that emotion emoted for what it was. And the fact that I could journey through that feeling, physically express it and create something beautiful instead of ignoring my anger and it coming out in a different, unhealthy way was wonderful.

So…do the thing that you love, not caring about how or why about every little detail, enjoy the process and I’ll see you on the other side!!!