Heartsong Studio

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.