Heartsong Studio

There was no question of any art-making after freak snow storms left us without power for 5 days and nights. House-bound, cold, and in the dark, keeping myself and my family warm and fed nipped any creative urges in the bud.

At first it was fun.

It was almost an adventure, like pioneering, or candle-lit dinner . . . for about an hour.

When things happen which change your day-to-day existence dramatically, like illness or accident, your priorities change in a flash.

Through no fault of your own, your art-making routine can be disrupted all out of shape by the overwhelm of added responsibilities. Even the holiday season can sabotage your creative habits.

You start to lose something.

A prolonged removal from the personal expression of creative work begins to affect your health too. Especially in times of stress, it can be very disconcerting to be deprived of this natural outlet.

Then suddenly the situation ends.

And, another type of stress is added. Things don’t always easily return to normal. It took a few warm nights sleeping without hat and mitts, and a few hot showers before I could relax and trust the return of power.

Many stops and starts - power on an hour, off again for two. Resetting digital clocks, and answering machines. Burst water pipes all over the neighbourhood. Phones dead whole days.

It’s not that you can’t benefit from a break.

The problem is afterwards, returning to some routine. Overcoming the inertia and returning to your art-making habits can take quite an effort after a prolonged absence.

Here’s an antidote to ease you back.

1. Don’t make art. Not yet.

Like finally taking a warm shower, ease yourself gently back with this loving care.

2. Just play.

Give yourself permission to be a child. Your inner artist will love to be cradled and played with.

3. Close your eyes and let your arms move in their own rhythm over paper. Use a cheap piece of paper and some ready media like crayons to further reduce the pressure.

A session or two of indulgent play will do the trick to get you back into the healthy habit. It could unearth some new possibilities; show you a fresh path to explore as well.

Much later, once you’re fully recovered, you can inch back into a regular discipline.

Turning tragedy into a blessing is a long road.

Though you may have no choice in the circumstances that limited you, you do have a choice, in the long run, of how you will view it. Once you have exercised resilience of this kind, you’ll be that much stronger in the future.

Think of the creative energy this will release ! There will be no stopping you !

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I found this gorgeous, 8 inch amanita muscaria mushroom, a perfect speciman in bright reddish orange, like a glowing light in a dark ditch.

The clash of its attractive colour with its deadly poisonous effect was puzzling at first. How could the vibrant colour warn people to stay away yet be so beautiful at the same time ?

Do you reject certain colours, styles, or media in your artwork ?

When we have pain, fear, or any negative feeling, we tend to tell ourselves why this is happening, and how to avoid or fix it. We often label it as forbidden, all with the intention of protecting ourselves from harm.

Forbidden territory is known but rejected. Rejection is like not forgiving. To not forgive is to give power to that rejected thing. If you had truly given up your rejection of the colour purple, for example, wouldn’t it feel neutral ?

At one time this may have been useful, just like my avoidance of poisonous mushrooms. Now, we may be limiting our potential for appreciation and expression.

It’s both humbling and expanding.

Before we can move on, we have to give up the wish that things were different and momentarily release our ideas of right or wrong, fair and unfair, will or won’t.

Once we stop arguing with the flow of events we can become conscious of our experience instead. It’s not a bad idea to test your boundaries now and then to see how viable they are.

Here’s an opportunity to re-examine paths not taken.

Colour is an easy quality to use, though this process works with other qualities too. You can explore any rejected colours to find out if there are any you might better embrace.

But never fear. Most forbidden things are self-imposed. You forbid this colour. You closed the door. You can always shut the door again if you need to.

Start by going toward the forbidden.

Choose or mix up one or a few really repulsive, yucky colours.

Then with one of these, and an open mind, begin to make marks on your paper, pushing it, squashing it, seeing what it’s made of. Let it have its say until you begin to see something in it you didn’t see before.

Then use a couple of these ‘ugly’ colours together. Find out what effect they have on each other.

Ask yourself:

1. Which forbidden colours provided access to new territory ?

2. Which colours stayed as repulsive as before ?

3. Which now seem more natural to you than you expected ?

Next, introduce these colours to old favourites.

On a fresh sheet of paper make a piece that allows the new and old to meet and find their way. See what happens when you use them together in a new work.

Ask yourself:

1. How did your hated and loved colours get along ?

2. Do you have any new respect for some colour ?

3. Did the combination show you anything that surprised you ?

This exercise is not so much about colour as it is about breaking out of self-imposed, constricting patterns of thinking. If you start with the relatively easy topic of colour, then perhaps others will be easier.

The reward is increased vitality and well-being.

When we consciously surrender our self-imposed restrictions, it releases our potential creative spirit from the confines of ordinary thinking. The only thing that truly limits us is what we don’t know about universal Love.

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