Creating art from the heART
I am so grateful for the lessons I am constantly being taught from this creative life. For a long time I thought being an artist was about collecting skills and perfecting them, that becoming a known/famous/money making artist was when someone became the best at perfecting those skills.
Collecting and perfecting skills is a huge part of being an artist and something I enjoy immensely. I love the excitement of learning a new craft, that "aahhh thats how you do that" moment. I love the endless hours of practice to try and master this new craft, watching your hands work nervously and clumsily until the muscles start to gain memory and the technique becomes second nature, that wonderful feeling of controlling the art rather than it controlling you.
I knew when I was in art college that I was missing something, I was collecting and learning new skills but my work never seemed to hit home with myself or anyone else. I watched other people present their work as it aroused emotion, shock, love and admiration. I felt it too when I admired other people's work but not so much in my own. I left uni pretty defeated, I was sick of art and feeling like I didn't belong in that world. Slowly and inevitably art seeped back into my life and now with a little more wisdom, a little perspective and whole lot of perseverance I feel like I'm starting to understand what I was missing.
I see it day in and day out, especially now platforms like Instagram are available, a place where we can swipe endlessly through archives of artists and artwork. There are a number of artist that I follow that stop me in my tracks, for sure because they have great control and practice in their art but now I see it's so much more than that. The artist I always pause at, the ones that inspire me most are the ones that have found themselves in their work, they exude a magic like universal wisdom is working though them and into physical art form. They have a style that is so personal, it mimics their true self and authenticity. It has taken many years but finally I have had the pleasure of feeling this power. Im not sure how or why or when I posses this flow. It comes in waves as does life and understanding ourselves. sometimes I feel blocked and other times I feel the flow of inspiration. This piece of work pictured was one of those times I remember so strongly. The image of this work came to me in a dream, I knew just how it would look, knot by knot, stitch by stitch. I woke and started working on it immediately, I didn't stop to count strands or figure out if it would work mathematically, the work flowed and everything fell into place effortlessly, as I worked I felt like I was expressing something, emotions poured from me into the work and I've never felt so satisfied by a final product. Without endless hours of practice of each skill that went into this work it wouldn't have been created, but without the magic that worked through me those skills wouldn't have been combined into something I felt represented me and my passions so perfectly.
Thats not to say this work wasn't inspired by others, everything we do is inspired by the world around us, we are a combination of everything and everyone we see and interact with. I wouldn't have chose to learn the skills I have without being inspired by others but there is a difference between being inspired and imitating. I have fallen into the latter, like I'm sure many have. If we create from a place of insecurity, feeling like we are not good enough or jealousy we are not creating from our authentic self. When we play the game of comparing ourselves and judging ourselves against where others are in their journey we throw away our power to create from our heart. This is the magic I have spent so long searching for, it's creating from a place of peace, from a place of authentic self.
I still find myself slipping into old habits of jealousy but now I can put my finger on this feeling, I take a breath and look at their work and see that jealousy is really an admiration of this person finding themselves in their work, I aim to turn that jealousy into inspiration, not to imitate their work but to find myself in my work. Deep down all artist know when they are creating from a place of authenticity, we can try and tell ourselves we came up with this idea or we have changed someone else's idea enough to make it our own but deep down we are only lying to ourselves and straying further away from creating art that comes from our heART, the art that sets our soul free, the art that makes us feel connected to the universe.
This isn't to say we shouldn't use each other as artist to learn from, to teach each other new techniques, especially when becoming an artist is new and fresh and we haven't found that inner wisdom yet to guid us. Being inspired to try a new art form, trying that new knot, stitch or stoke is what will help us progress our skills, but learning the line between being inspired and imitation, jealousy and authenticity is was will set our minds free to let art flow effortlessly through us.
Collecting and perfecting skills is a huge part of being an artist and something I enjoy immensely. I love the excitement of learning a new craft, that "aahhh thats how you do that" moment. I love the endless hours of practice to try and master this new craft, watching your hands work nervously and clumsily until the muscles start to gain memory and the technique becomes second nature, that wonderful feeling of controlling the art rather than it controlling you.
I knew when I was in art college that I was missing something, I was collecting and learning new skills but my work never seemed to hit home with myself or anyone else. I watched other people present their work as it aroused emotion, shock, love and admiration. I felt it too when I admired other people's work but not so much in my own. I left uni pretty defeated, I was sick of art and feeling like I didn't belong in that world. Slowly and inevitably art seeped back into my life and now with a little more wisdom, a little perspective and whole lot of perseverance I feel like I'm starting to understand what I was missing.
I see it day in and day out, especially now platforms like Instagram are available, a place where we can swipe endlessly through archives of artists and artwork. There are a number of artist that I follow that stop me in my tracks, for sure because they have great control and practice in their art but now I see it's so much more than that. The artist I always pause at, the ones that inspire me most are the ones that have found themselves in their work, they exude a magic like universal wisdom is working though them and into physical art form. They have a style that is so personal, it mimics their true self and authenticity. It has taken many years but finally I have had the pleasure of feeling this power. Im not sure how or why or when I posses this flow. It comes in waves as does life and understanding ourselves. sometimes I feel blocked and other times I feel the flow of inspiration. This piece of work pictured was one of those times I remember so strongly. The image of this work came to me in a dream, I knew just how it would look, knot by knot, stitch by stitch. I woke and started working on it immediately, I didn't stop to count strands or figure out if it would work mathematically, the work flowed and everything fell into place effortlessly, as I worked I felt like I was expressing something, emotions poured from me into the work and I've never felt so satisfied by a final product. Without endless hours of practice of each skill that went into this work it wouldn't have been created, but without the magic that worked through me those skills wouldn't have been combined into something I felt represented me and my passions so perfectly.
Thats not to say this work wasn't inspired by others, everything we do is inspired by the world around us, we are a combination of everything and everyone we see and interact with. I wouldn't have chose to learn the skills I have without being inspired by others but there is a difference between being inspired and imitating. I have fallen into the latter, like I'm sure many have. If we create from a place of insecurity, feeling like we are not good enough or jealousy we are not creating from our authentic self. When we play the game of comparing ourselves and judging ourselves against where others are in their journey we throw away our power to create from our heart. This is the magic I have spent so long searching for, it's creating from a place of peace, from a place of authentic self.
I still find myself slipping into old habits of jealousy but now I can put my finger on this feeling, I take a breath and look at their work and see that jealousy is really an admiration of this person finding themselves in their work, I aim to turn that jealousy into inspiration, not to imitate their work but to find myself in my work. Deep down all artist know when they are creating from a place of authenticity, we can try and tell ourselves we came up with this idea or we have changed someone else's idea enough to make it our own but deep down we are only lying to ourselves and straying further away from creating art that comes from our heART, the art that sets our soul free, the art that makes us feel connected to the universe.
This isn't to say we shouldn't use each other as artist to learn from, to teach each other new techniques, especially when becoming an artist is new and fresh and we haven't found that inner wisdom yet to guid us. Being inspired to try a new art form, trying that new knot, stitch or stoke is what will help us progress our skills, but learning the line between being inspired and imitation, jealousy and authenticity is was will set our minds free to let art flow effortlessly through us.