Awake and creative.
In my world,
This is go time,
4am,
No light in the sky,
No neighbors moving about,
No cars on the road,
A few birds waking and saying hello in their own way,
And the dog.
Usually needing to visit the outdoors.
Awake and creative.
If you've been following along on this 40 day journey to awake and creative,
You'll have gleaned the fact that I identify as an artist.
I paint and teach and write about the art of encaustic.
As is the case with everyone who breathes and lives in this world,
I face struggles on this journey.
To know that I'm still here and meant to be here,
Holding a brush and putting words around creations.
Often times the struggle is because I'm trying to recreate or re-identify what I've done in the past.
That never works.
Again and again,
I'll begin to see a story evolve and a full exhibit of beautiful works come to be only because I've been able to let go of that past.
That's something that worked before,
So if I hold on tight enough,
I'll be able to put it to work again,
It'll work again,
It'll speak again,
But that's never the case.
Recently,
I began to see how to better ask the questions of how to continue to create rather than re-create.
Because as an artist,
There's a continuity through the lifetime of expression that comes to be.
There's a voice that is consistent.
That even if the work changes,
Even if the colors evolve,
Even if the shapes never take the same form again,
You can look at the painting,
You can read the story,
And still see that artist in that work.
A very simple quote helped me loosen the grip and look forward into new works in a new way.
Anne Mordefi said,
You can't see a bright tomorrow with yesterday's eyes.
So rather than look with yesterday's eyes to past works and try to see into the future as if a brightness existed,
I realized there's a through line that isn't continuing the same work,
But that is holding the same energy as I do the work.
For me,
What ends up evolving and being that through line is joy.
Now,
Life doesn't always hold joy and in fact,
Can be rather catastrophic.
But that through line of joy for me isn't to say that life is a Pollyanna goodness.
It's to express the underlying heartbeat of what I believe to be the intention and possibility when one grasps the entirety of their life.
So I pause it to you today,
Awaken creative and ask yourself,
Rather than recreating what's already been done in your life and hope that the magnificent results show up again,
How about asking what energy created those beautiful results?
And how is that energy still alive and burning in you ready to manifest in these new hands in this new age you're in now?
Do it again in a whole new way with bright,
Futured eyes.
Awaken creative.
