In order to get my creative juices flowing, I just open my eyes and ears. I explore the world around me with my physical senses. If I touch, smell or taste something, that information gets stored, along with the sights and sounds. It’s automatic. Everything just goes into the file, and I end up with an idea of my surroundings. My universe. Everyone does this. The creative part comes when I pull the files and interpret the information. Everyone does this differently, even if we experience the same part of the world at the same time. That’s the creativity. It’s who I am. Creating art comes when I pick up a pencil or paintbrush, or anything that can leave a visible line or pigment behind. Sometimes I document something I’ve seen in the physical world. More often lately I let a line be a line, let a color be a color. After my hand paints or draws a few layers, I look at it. While creating it, I’m sure I’m making choices that are appealing to me, but usually not a story. With these mixed media compositions, I recognize the story later. Or not. But I still enjoy the way the colors and shapes interact. Often, the story is clear. Either way, I am not disappointed, because I have no expectation. Just discovery and surprise. I didn’t spell it all out without leaving something for the viewer to discover, even when the viewer was me. Those expectations were always the main obstacle. It’s like trying to cram God into a theology book. Creativity is so much bigger than my expectation. It just doesn’t fit. I create for myself. I love to share what I create, and I feel a thrill when someone else relates to or understands what I’ve done. Their reaction won’t make or break me. It’s just my creativity breathing out. The act of painting calms me. Brushstrokes that I love get covered up, and that’s ok. I breathe out, and that’s ok. I’ll just breathe in again. Until I don’t. Then I guess I’ll be done painting. The advice I would give you is to find the thing you love. The thing you are passionate about, and do that. We’re not all painters. Do the thing you do.
