INTUITIVE ART MARKS
My Dear Art Friends,
I'm headed to San Miguel de Allende in a few days and am preparing myself for the time away. The main reason for this trip is the Art Retreat for Women I'll be facilitating there January 23-30. Originally scheduled for March, 2020, this long-awaited retreat, "Making Intuitive Art: Permission to Paint Expressively" promises to be a powerful one. I can't wait to see the intuitive art the participants make!
Several years ago I began to paint in a manner that invited me to let go of the outer references that had inspired my work from my earliest painting days. Instead, I found myself letting go and relying more on inner guidance to create abstract paintings. Using the rhythm and colors of music, I moved into a space of spontaneous mark making. I continue to find this practice of allowing the brush to dance across the canvas with randomly selected paint very enjoyable. When I paint this way, something larger than my ordinary self seems to take over, creating a painting more original and interesting than I could have designed intentionally .
At times, however, I find myself feeling quite anxious, for in addition to the fun of making marks I like to make, along with unusual color combinations, this practice also requires the sacrifice of certainty and the embrace of what often seems like chaos as the creative process (Life its Own Self) takes me into unfamiliar territory.
And while to some I may seem fearless, I'm not without control issues! I'm constantly at odds with the parts of me that want to play it safe and dial back all that risk-taking. Still, on balance, I realize that decisions I've made intuitively have yielded amazing outcomes I could never have predicted if I'd insisted beforehand to know what would unfold.
(A perfect example was the unmistakable urge I felt to come to Michigan from Atlanta to paint in October, 2008. I felt very silly because once I arrived in Frankfort it was obviously too cold to paint. Yet, as it turned out, if it hadn't been for the bad weather, I might never have contacted a realtor; and we might not have been traveling down Forest Avenue a few minutes after a For Sale sign had been planted in front of the house in which I now paint in all kinds of weather! Much of that, of course, is down to Roo's hard renovation work.)
Did I mention that I'm not without anxiety about the intuitive choices I make? I think I did. Truly, I can make my life (and Roo's) pretty uncomfortable with doubts and second-guessing. If it's something momentous I've felt guided to undertake--a large painting, a mid-pandemic art installation, travel--I often find myself waking in the wee hours wondering WTF! Still, I'm not sure I would do this interesting life differently even if I could, although more sleep would be okay ....
In the days remaining before Mexico, I've taken my sleep-deprived self to the easel with only a vague notion of a body of work based on groupings of 60" x 60" canvases. Truly, this is not a sane undertaking! Nevertheless last week, on a frigid, blowing, snowy day a semi-truck pulled up to deliver 9 of these big boys. After unloading the 3 heavy boxes, the driver, armed with a bright smile and unexpected enthusiasm, wanted to know what I'd be painting on them. Warmed by his genuine curiosity, I told him, "I have no idea! But, surely, something will emerge."
It always does!
Recently "Floating Lotus" emerged. I made the first marks squirting out paint from a randomly selected tube with my eyes barely open, one sleepless morning at 5 a.m. (I would never have intentionally used the Extremely Messy Pthalo Blue if my eyes had been open!) It quickly took on a life of its own .... ( See the large painting above, details below.)
Thanks for following along! I hope you enjoy the work....
Love,
Ellie
P.S. In this Age of Anxiety (personal and otherwise), I've doubled down on meditation practice. It can be very soothing to sit up straight in a chair with nothing to do but observe the breath ....
