Heartsong Studio

 Once you have started to express inspirations from your heart, how do you learn techniques to make them into works of art ? If your mind overwhelms you groping for techniques, keep exploring with your open heart, while you learn from those who went before, in this article:

“When the method overwhelms the goal”.

In 1492, Columbus sailed off to discover the far east, and possibly prove the earth was not flat. Queen Isabella of Spain invested the expedition with three ships, and her profit would be in spices and riches from the Orient.

Did Chris die an abject failure ? We have no way of knowing what his goal was at heart. If he wanted to find China or prove the earth was a sphere, he certainly failed though Spain eventually got their gold.
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A client asked what techniques she’d need to make a work of art. Now she can draw from within from a live model and express images emerging from her heart. What comes next in making art ? Should she learn perspective, shading, or another technique or method ?

I’ve experienced this slippery slope myself, as a prospective new artist. I learned a technique or two and followed the instructions well. I went about looking for a subject to practice each new skill. But the techniques overshadowed my heart’s inspirations, and I often lost sight of my true goal.
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What does this have to do with Columbus’s exploration ? Columbus didn’t find what he expected to find, but it turns out that he discovered a whole new continent which founded a new culture as well. Was he a failure or a name for history to remember forever ?

If Columbus had been able to stay in service to his heart’s goal rather than that of the Queen of Spain, he might have realized the brilliance of his actual discovery. Rather than being in service to your mind’s expectations or those of any other ‘experts’ or technique, what if you, as the intrepid new artist, kept in service to the needs of your inspiration ?

If you consulted the newly emerging concept, image, or entity to which you are giving birth, the way to manifest it best might be discovered.Where is this method to be found ?
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Your inspiration started in your heart, and your heart will tell you, as you go, what it needs next. Of course, you will need your mind too.

Be an explorer and play around. 
* Draw, paint, carve, or sculpt, trying out stuff, messing about, searching for what speaks of your new concept.
* Start with a bunch of volunteer paper or an old canvas. If you need to show distance, study some distance and see how it looks under different conditions. If you need a soft edge, try out a drier brush and scrub it thin and fuzzy.

Solutions which are right for your purpose are waiting within for the asking. With practice, this becomes easier, because it’s the most natural way for you to function.Discover your own method that expresses what only you can discern. You are the expert on your emerging image.
Fail early, fail often and succeed faster.
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Famous one name artists like Picasso, Rembrandt, Michelangelo invented all the techniques they needed. Many of them studied in academies too to learn the basics of the day. But the really original standout works of art broke the rules of their time, by inventing new ones - out of need. These techniques became the next generations ‘basic rules’.
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We can’t all be Columbus, and I doubt there are many more continents to discover. But lesser mortals have worked the same way as the Michelangelos, Picassos, and Rembrandts.Every work of art isn’t better than the last, but the more you make, the greater your opportunity to develop your ability to stay heart-centred and inventive to give birth to new pieces in partnership with the One.

This doesn’t mean you can’t learn from others. Columbus learned to sail. It just means don’t relinquish your inner wisdom; don’t let the method overshadow the goal by following a false star. Unlike exploring in ships, art-making is replete with undiscovered continents.

If you set out to discover the unknown, you can’t ever be an abject failure if you keep your sights on the true star. If you keep on exploring, there’s gold around many corners, just waiting to enrich you. Experience is the best teacher, maybe the only one.

Have you ever been looking for something and were staring right at it without seeing it ? Some clients can’t see what their new work is revealing because they can’t see beyond their expectations. When we have too fixed an expectation, the reality often doesn’t match our mental picture and so we don’t even see it.

I used to be scared of swimming in open bodies of water. All I could see was the water surface reflecting sky in the choppy waves. I knew that underneath lay the dark unknown. Jaws wasn’t a movie yet, but my imagination had the same effect. There’s a lot of fear in the unknown, and this was a deeply engrained prejudice. While I knew how to swim, I never felt safe putting my whole body at risk where I couldn‘t see beneath the surface.

Looking is distancing and one-sided, like looking up a dark alley. Many prejudices crop up because of our existing beliefs and past experiences. Looking allows the exterior appearance to shield us from exposure to the unknown or the feared.

One year, I was on the Isle of Elba in Italy for my summer vacation. I’d been given a scuba mask as a birthday gift. It seemed like a safe idea to lie on the warm rocks wearing the mask, so I could put only the mask under the water surface.

What a surprise ! I was blown away by what was hidden by a thin veil of nothingness - the water surface. Suddenly the choppy murky dark unknown was a calm, clear azure blue. I watched coloured fishes and scuba divers flying gently underwater, and I lusted to fly too !

Pablo Picasso said: “The trouble is, we’ve been taught what to see and how to render what we see.” Unlike looking at the surface, seeing can be seeing into, as well as being seen. It’s the beginning of a relationship.

Wildly enthusiastic about what I finally saw beneath, I learned to scuba dive the next year, and overcame a life long fear. This was the single most empowering event of my life. Overcoming a strong fear unleashed powerful creative energy.

How can you see in a new way, beneath the surface of things ? There is a way of seeing that’s readily accessible. It’s not risky in the least, and it’s within easy reach. It’s seeing beneath your own surface, into your heart or spirit. Reflecting on your Source is a practice in most spiritual traditions. I use the Sufi practice of the Remembrance in my life and work.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all was looking up at the same surface of the water from below. It was all brightly lit and acted like a mirror for those of us underneath. The water surface was like a two-way mirror, one way dark and foreboding, the other, bright azure and welcoming, yet each was a mirror image of the other.

This complimentary yin-yang phenomenon keeps showing up again and again it seems. By seeing into your own heart, your ability to see into everything else is made possible and enhanced. Outside and inside are mirror images of each other, and we are all reflections of the One.

Walk into the thing you don’t want to see the most instead of using it as a reason why you can‘t. The mindfulness you gain in learning to see is very healing on its own.