Heartsong Studio

Free Spirits 24″ X 36″, acrylic

My latest serious painting is another, looser version of a small vignette from a larger one I did years ago. Artificial lighting, even the special daylight tubes, just doesn’t give a true version of colour like real daylight. This took about 3 weeks with daylight being so short here at this time of year, so it was finished today, 3 January, 2011.

Click photo to enlarge.

Free Spirits 24" X 36"

Some things I think I learned:

The only rule is work.   If you work it will lead to something.   It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.

Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time.   They’re different processes.

Be happy whenever you can manage it.   Enjoy yourself.   It’s lighter than you think.

In 1492, Columbus sailed off to discover the far east, and possibly prove the earth was not flat. 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 others or your mind’s expectations, what if you, as the adventuresome artist, kept in service to the needs of your inspiration ?

Does this sound familiar? It was part of an old Fresh Horses article: When the Method Overwhelms the Goal. It fits my last few posts here perfectly, but the lesson applies to us all . If you set out to discover the unknown, you can’t ever be a failure if you keep your sights on your true star. Experience is the best teacher, maybe the only one.

Much as I enjoy writing about making art, it all too easily takes the place of actually doing it. Waiting for time and inspiration to paint is like standing at the airport waiting for a train. Once recognized, it becomes clear what I must do.

I will be using more of my time to follow my true calling. Being immersed in making art, I may post Fresh Horses infrequently, sporadically, or perhaps not at all, or I may post photos of new paintings from time to time too.

I can always be reached by email: celeste@heartsongstudio.com, and you can always post a comment here if you wish.

I leave you with the closing lines from “In Blackwater Woods” by Mary Oliver, about the courageous willingness to embrace both connection and loss.

To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

“Are you painting lots?” friends often ask me. This usually feels like a compliment, and I’m sure that’s how it’s meant. But it clearly wants a “Yes” answer, which really puts me on the spot at times. I feel a bit humiliated, assuming I “should” be painting a lot, no matter what else is going on in my life.

I’ve even committed myself to make art when there was clearly no time for it. In my recent self-imposed schedule I dutifully dug in and started painting amid loads of other obligations I had at the same time. But I made myself paint every single day for an entire month, right through fever and a 3 week bout of flu.

No fun. . . no kidding. There was no time left to simply enjoy life. It took several days after it was done to even see my work clearly. Though my true self did show through in the work, I had let the process take over and abuse me. This wounded my inner sense of what was right. I had been untrue to myself.

Does this mean I should give up painting? This is what I felt like doing, believe me. Well instead, I learned something about self healing. Taking on a load of projects, and going at them with a vengeance turned my purpose into a self-defeating struggle from the start. I couldn’t hope to win.

Of course, the result was a sort of crash, of which the flu may have been a part. I know; flu is caused by a virus. But there are thousands of viruses in and around our bodies all the time. We succumb when our immune systems get low, for example, through stress.

Once this pattern is recognized, then the choice is yours to heed the warning, or not.

For awhile afterwards, I rebelled by not making any art. See, I’m still “shoulding” myself by calling it rebellion. Hm-m. CORRECTION — I took a break to acknowledge my overwhelm, because it was clearly what I needed. We have to be able to say “No” before our “Yes” has any real strength.

Art-making is supposed to be a pleasure.

For many of us, keeping to a tight schedule is often antithetical to the creative process. If you try to schedule pleasure tightly, it not only doesn’t work, it backfires. There is no requirement, no necessity, no “should” about painting from obligation. The world will not end if you don’t adhere to a strict schedule. Mostly it won’t even notice. Sigh.

Right now I have just finished painting a couple of 5-foot signs for my choir’s concert. This took me into my studio every day. It feels good to be back in my old creative surroundings, even to do routine graphic work. (I was a professional graphic artist a lifetime ago). These signs have taken me longer to make than all 3 concerts will take to perform, because of the snowflakes.

Making dozens of paper snowflakes to decoupage on the signs was the best part. At first I made 8-pointed snowflakes, until my engineer partner reminded me they usually have 6 points. I didn’t pay very close attention to his demo — my little child came out full force “doing it myself” — but Google reminded me how.

I cannot believe I’m writing about paper snowflakes on my web log.

Getting in touch with my child again has been helpful for me, and happened to just fit this obligation. I hope you caught a whiff of my enthusiasm there for a minute. It might not hurt you to play at something once in awhile too.

“Something we were withholding made us weak until we found it was ourselves,” said Robert Frost. “It takes courage for an adult to play. We don’t need to pretend anything, but playing is sometimes a natural way of learning.”

Now I’ve said “No” a few times, and let my child play, I’ll see if I’m ready to start drawing and painting again. When I’m good and ready to say “Yes”, it will be from strength and for pure pleasure.

But, it cannot end there.

After any transition in life, there’s a time for mourning, or reorienting. You need time to get used to the changed world perhaps, but also to get to know yourself now, as you come out the other end of the process. Don’t try to rush this stage either, or you’ll just have to go back and do it later.

Depending on your history of being unable to stand up for your inner knowledge without apology or explanation, memories of your past won’t be forgotten. For awhile you will have to make an effort, but the stronger you become, the smoother it will be to do the right thing for yourself.

Were the Beatles right in singing “Love is all you need”? I often wonder if this has become one of those pie-in-the-sky phrases. Some people, on the other hand, seem to assume that you need the intellect to “analyze” a work art, and that love has little to do with it.

Often our inner truth can be hard to discern.

Thinking won’t get you there, but either will emotions. Our emotions are not our inner truth, but they can certainly point the way.

I did a lot of crying when I first learned the Remembrance, and I didn’t know why. Once I accepted that I didn’t need to know why, and that whatever I experienced was perfectly all right and didn’t need fixing, I felt heard and the crying subsided naturally.

Later I understood why, but the loving acceptance I sensed from within myself didn’t need this mental understanding to do its healing. First comes the self-acceptance; afterwards comes the understanding.

We may feel apprehensive, evasive, or defensive for no obvious reason, or we might cry before a painting that “gets to us”. If we can find loving acceptance as we are right now, then we might be able to profit from our emotions by deepening our self-understanding and ultimately our enjoyment of life.

Life can make us crazy, but art has the power to put life in perspective and enhance our inner knowing, because heart-centred expression reliably transmits inner truth. Learning this new way of seeing and being seen, more than doubles the possibility of perception and self-knowledge.

How can you reach the meaning of your responses so that personal growth is possible? I don’t advocate self-analysis. If loving yourself sounds too self-centred, try seeing yourself as a bud needing water to blossom as this visual metaphor describes.

“The bud stands for all things, even those things that don’t flower, because everything flowers from within of self-blessing.” (from Galway Kinnell’s “St. Francis and the Sow”

There are times when we may stop going inside, checking in with our core truths, reflecting inward, or doing the Remembrance. It may seem like we don’t have the time. Sometimes, when the experience of unconditional love from another person is brand new, we may assume it is enough. But it isn’t.

In truth, we all need a deeply fundamental type of love. Love from another person is not all we need. Like the bud keeps needing water, we need self-blessing replenished again and again.

Recently I sent a copy of my free workbook: “Reaching the Heart of Your Creative Potential” to a new subscriber . Because I wrote it years ago, I thought I’d better have another look at it myself. I was deeply touched by the tenderness in the guidance I gave to all my clients. My own tenderness, or self-blessing, was exactly what I needed to make the next step in my life’s journey.

Seeing your inner truth can be very subtle sometimes.

At first it’s easy to miss seeing your inner knowing, expecting something surprising, but your truth more often just seems to be there already waiting. It doesn’t have to be a big production or time commitment either. Once you’ve learned how, it’s possible to “top up” your inner confidence in a brief moment, whenever and as often as you feel a need.

Deep inner reflection, as in the Remembrance, allows you to stand where your reality is right now, so you can feel the strength of the ground under you, supporting you. Then you can meet others as equals, relate altruistically, and love unconditionally, with a soft strength instead of from neediness.

I wasn’t a happy camper. This didn’t feel like success.

My latest venture in taking on a complicated subject and trying to develop a new method in Becoming a Beginner left me exhausted and dissatisfied.

“Success can be very disappointing,” wrote Evan Hadkins in his “Living Authentically”.

There seems to be some degree of expectation or self judgment attached to any art making, whether you’re a hobby artist or a professional. If you don’t reach the level of success that you expect, it can feel very bad. And yet, it can be a gift to find what your disappointment might show you.

We always have a choice to learn more about our core selves or not.

Jung defined neurosis as suffering that has not yet found its meaning. Even to have achieved everything we seek in life and still be without passion is to suffer the absence of authenticity; a life unlived.

Jung was right. Those critical voices in my head came out of unresolved issues. The things that are hardest to accept are probably the most important lessons. While I enjoyed many surprise findings during that painting challenge, when I met with disappointment it was sometimes overwhelming.

It was very hard for me to swallow that I’d really made a hash of this project, or so it seemed.

On the positive side, I noticed several coincidences during that month. New images I sometimes found through the veils of paint lifted me to new solutions. Serendipitous solutions are probably there all the time, but so are many unrecognized troubles.

If we only see the success or failure of our expectations, we miss the chance to learn more about ourselves at the core. Resolving troubling topics and finding happy solutions can lead the way to embracing our true selves.

Even looking at others’ art can bring some of the same rewards, as was evident in some of your comments. Whatever you see in any work of art could be a clue to what you’re needing to uncover in yourself.

I can only speak of what meanings are there for me, and though our views of what we see in the same work may seem very different, I suspect there is a larger commonality. One reader wrote of not understanding abstract art, and I’m with her on that. I merely respond — or don’t — to abstract art.

On some level, a work in progress has a different evolution from that of our conscious intentions; it also reflects the unconscious. I didn’t expect or understand why the more I simplified (abstracted) the figures in Bliss, the more static they appeared to be.

Even though one figure is definitely male and the other female, they seemed to want to meld together and overfill the canvas, no matter how I thought there should be some spaces.

“There is some kiss we want our whole lives…” Rumi

We all carry a longing to connect to the “other”. Some of us have been longing to be loved unconditionally our whole lives long. In some of my past paintings there’s a yearning which shows through, no matter what my intention was. It took me ages to see this.

Suddenly, two years ago, out of the blue, a miracle brought the first unconditional love I’ve ever experienced! To my surprise, I found that when you finally find your heart’s truth, even if you mistook it 50 years ago, you don’t have to puzzle over it; it’s astoundingly obvious.

No wonder I’m still getting used to the new me at my core. The strength I’m finding in this perfect mutual trust frees my heart, and makes growth possible. What a transition! I am truly a beginner.

With time to reflect and recover from the efforts of my painting challenge and with lots of encouragement from you, readers and friends, learning through my initial disappointment, this is what I’m now seeing in my painting.

There’s no hint in sight of my old yearning. The two figures flow into one another and over the canvas with their love. At the base, they seem to be rising up from a common root and blossoming up through the green leaves. The female figure has emerging wings; perhaps this bliss sets her free. Just as yearning had found its own way into my earlier work, none of these images were consciously intended.

Our creative endeavours aren’t always successful, but they always hold the potential to give us satisfaction. For me, to be in the process of evolving and growing is the only way to really live.

* * * * * * * *

You have posted wonderful comments. I hope they encourage others as they do me. I’m very interested to hear more from you.

How do you gain insights through art, your own or others’?

If you’d like to share any ways you’ve found to deepen your self-knowledge through art, you are very welcome to post a comment, or email me privately if you’d prefer.

I wholeheartedly recommend having a look at Evan Hadkins’s site Living Authentically for lots of gentle guidance along these lines.

Now, an after-dinner mint?

Tulips Are Better Than . . . 4.5″ X 2.5″

Since I hadn’t yet discovered exactly what my new process would be, or how to go about “backing into” abstraction, promising to show you my new painting was really going out on a limb.

My goal was to make a visual expression of Bliss, a very new and precious experience in my life.

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” — John Wooden

Please don’t take my choice of direction as the way things should be for you.   I am an expert only in the inner potential that’s calling me.   I’ve gained a new respect for all of you who have ever been students and allowed yourselves to open up unrealized potential within you.

After 30 odd years of painting in various media, in styles from abstract to representational, and a year in hiatus, it was time for a change.   As suitable as these styles were then, I longed to venture into an expanded process to express deeper meanings, by building on past experience.

My idea seemed reckless from the start.

I blithely started with a figure drawing.  “My gawd,” I thought, “I can’t post this.  It seems too specific and doesn’t suggest the universal bliss I’m trying to show”.  Was this miraculous feeling too ambitious to paint?

Instinctively, I scrubbed the paint on very thinly, simplified and reduced the details.   It became obvious that the few shapes remaining had to be even more accurate.   Otherwise, viewers might say:  “Maybe she’s trying not to say something”.    I wondered if my backing into looser work from a drawing was just a silly idea.   Arrgh!!

It’s bad luck to be superstitious.

Each time I scolded myself, I stayed stuck.   But when I could let go of my “doomed” scenario, the last ‘bad’ solution presented new ideas.   Each time I stayed open to what was there, new forms appeared, in plain view, through the thin layering of paint.

Stumbling on difficulties can turn into a gift.   So I traded in the superstition of “I can’t get there from here”, to search for a different map.   Online I scanned thousands of abstract figure paintings, researching what other artists do, until this one caught my attention.

Bride , 60″ X 48″ by Sabina Sule’.

Sabina Sule’ makes preliminary, accurate drawings on canvas, and overlays them with washes of transparent paint.  Then she starts again with another drawing and so on until it’s full.  There remains a misty record of her process and struggle.

It enchanted and encouraged me.

I wasn’t so crazy after all, to think I could “back into” abstraction.   Someone already worked this way.   I eagerly made time in my studio, an hour here, an hour there, with lots of ups and downs, impasses, solutions, followed by more frustration.

Every time I drew from an idea in my mind, it just didn’t fit.  Yet every time I “found” the figure by contemplating the work, it not only fit, but offered another aspect of the subject.   Once I started to find other images hidden in the layers, washing over them became a bit easier.

At one point, overwhelmed by all the other things to do in life, and all that was still unresolved on my canvas, I read:  “Putting Problems into Perspective” at May Johnstone’s Blog .   When I reached the word ” spaciousness”,  I knew what my piece and I both needed.

Eventually, I began to let my feelings swell and subside, like waves in the ocean, and risk short term instability for possible growth.   More hours of contemplation with my work, and a lot more painting attempts resulted in this first flawed effort — not at all what I expected.   Only some of my struggle shows.

Bliss , 30″ X 24″

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes. “ John Wooden

This approach isn’t a substitute for either representational work or abstract. It moves from one to the other and back again, until they blend into a truly collaborative relationship.

The many transitions the work undergoes reflects the experience of love itself.  You can’t have endless bliss without confronting some challenges. Every step is about learning to trust, willing to become a beginner again.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few. Always keep your beginner’s mind.” Shunryu Suzuki

After thought:

We don’t often have the luxury of “explaining” our art before it’s shown.  Thank you to all who read my last blog ” Searching For Wild Mustangs” for being my motivation to follow through.  Just thinking of my promise to bare my struggles for all of you to see was enough to put me in overdrive.  Though I tried to think of an excuse not to keep my promise, there weren’t any valid ones.

The main lesson for me from this challenge was HUMILITY.   After some loose little paintings to keep limber, I’m surprisingly eager to keep exploring this approach.

I hope this encourages you to share your ideas, questions, or any new art you’ve made.   Send me a photo attachment if you like, and I’ll post it here with your comments or questions.

Did you think Fresh Horses had galloped away for good? At times, even I thought so. Hear the approaching hoof beats?  After a year, Fresh Horses has become — a BLOG!!!

Searching for Wild Mustangs

“If I’d asked people what they wanted they’d have said faster horses” – Henry Ford.

We don’t always know what we want or need until we stumble onto it. Even our imagination can’t possibly dream up all the amazing possibilities. After a few years without time to paint, and my life as I’d known it turned upside down, I’m now ripe for inspiration.

After seeing the evolution of artist friends at their yearly show, I was itching to paint again. But where to find Fresh Horses when you need them?

Look out in a field where mustangs roam.

First I “googled” Mark Rothko and abstract landscape painting, art which has always inspired me. Certain images jumped out and grabbed me. Out loud I said to nobody: “I could do that.”

Of course I could try, but it wouldn’t be me. Yet, repeating my usual approach now seems like riding tamed horses. I long for wild mustangs and a looser expression of my emerging new self.

“The more you focus on what you want, the further away you are from that which brings it.” Sheikh As-Sakandari

So I decided to sneak up on this looser approach by getting my brushes wet. My first one was: Launching Happiness, 20″ X 30″

This is not abstract; it’s a reflection of the bow of a sailboat. Looser is a relative term. So is abstract. Sometimes representational art looks quite abstract, and sometimes abstract art looks rather realistic.

Fragile Trust, 36″ X 20″

The more we try to change, the more we remain the same.

The notion of riding wild mustangs was positively scary, though it promised to “loosen me up”.  So I talked with a friend who’d been a client of mine.

Catherine said: “That’s what you taught me! You should take your own courses, Celeste.” She was right. So I did.

I get it now. Being a beginning artist again is indeed an opportunity — a time of preparation, anticipation and excitement of the possibility that exists if we allow ourselves to re-frame our concept of making art.

In his book “Horse Sense for People”, Monty Roberts tells how he watched the body language of wild horses, seeing how they’d flee from a predator but return later to check out this new being.  Watching the body language of my own wild horses, I can see my first lessons are: Slow down and Don’t panic.

So what is this fear all about?

I’ve stayed curious about wild mustangs in my personal life over the last 2 years. To my surprise, I found that when you finally find your heart’s truth, you don’t have to puzzle over it; it’s astoundingly obvious. I hardly recognize myself, I’m that happy.

But – What if I don’t see any new found freedom expressed in my art?
Even worse – What if I do?
Though this feels like psychic sky diving, the fact is: it’s out of my hands.

When you come to the end of your resistence, let go.

So, how did I find a looser approach when my habitual brain kept rushing for the safety of the known? It’s not rocket science. Once tuned in to my inner instincts, I sensed how to start. Just say “No!” to the illusion of fear.

“It doesn’t make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement. Nobody is bored when he is trying to make something that is beautiful or to discover something that is true.” Barnett Newman

In our local thrift shop, I found a handful of tiny wooden photo frames for $1 each. I took out the glass, stretched a piece of raw canvas over the backing board, and stained the canvas with acrylic paint to find an abstract landscape in miniature. Then, I wedged it back into the frame.

So out of humility come my first tentative little loose paintings, a lot like when I started 30 years ago. Miniature abstract landscapes are such easy play, and oh, so satisfying. Abstracts reveal hidden insights into the real world.

“Down to Earth”, 3″ X 5″

“September Field”, 4″ X 6″

The brand new idea I’m investigating

If we can see something real in an abstract image, then could loosening up a realistic image reveal some hidden truth or beauty?

Just as a curious mustang goes back to check out a predator, I keep going back to discover my newly emerging approach. The fear is still there, but continuing to go check it out slows me down and adds to the excitement.

“No! There is nothing but Oneness.” ***

Saying “No! to the illusion of fear helps me stay open to hearing the clear call of “Yes!”.
Yes, my new way to growing freedom is coming clear.
Yes, I will bring back the results, and bravely post them right here for all to see on the Fresh Horses Blog.

Now let’s hear your comments. What have you experienced? Wanna join me in messing about; stirring things up in your studio?

*** Quote from “Six Sufi Teachings That Give Shelter in the Storm”
Article ©2010 Mark Silver  http://www.heartofbusiness.com

When out-of-the-blue good fortune bursts upon us, it’s in our best interests to be prepared to change our plans.  In this article “Stumbling on Happiness *”, I trust my heart — and follow all the other advice I’ve been giving you loyal readers of Fresh Horses.

Stumbling on Happiness *

We plan our lives, like our art projects, with a view to a successful outcome. Often things don’t turn out quite the way we expected.

Three and a half years ago when I began Heartsong Studio as a business, I knew I could help clients discover, uncover and recover their wild creative potential. My plan was to focus on this work to give meaning to my life after my elderly husband with Alzheimer’s was in permanent care.

But my future didn’t unfold at all as I’d imagined. One problem was that the time spent teaching and on other activities necessary to running a business severely cut into the time I could devote to my primary interest — artmaking.

Sometimes — perhaps once in a lifetime — we may stumble on true happiness.

A fortunate turn of events I could not have imagined has changed the direction of my life for the next 30 or so years that may be allowed me. This newborn fulfillment within my life has given it a purpose and joy, but has made it impractical to devote adequate time to also continue with my web-based business.

So, this is the final Fresh Horses newsletter.

I’ve enjoyed my interrelationship with every one of my clients and learned a great deal from each of you. I’ve enjoyed and grown from writing this newsletter and from the thoughtful responses it has provoked from my readers.

Heartsong Studio website will remain up for a several months with its archive of Fresh Horses back issues. You will still be able to write comments on any of the articles.

Although I am shutting down the storefront, I remain interested in your artistic development and am open to exchanges of creative ideas. I would welcome all correspondence that you may wish to send in future to celeste@heartsongstudio.com.

I hope you will draw encouragement from my example.

No matter what age you are at or stage in life, if you feel within you the urge to create, that of itself is proof of your potential. Please join me in continuing to uncover and evolve your creative expression, as a vital way to sustain your health and happiness.

Love,

Celeste

*”Stumbling on Happiness” is a book by Daniel Gilbert.

Whenever switching from rational drawing to more intuitive painting, I’ve often wondered if left-handers are more creative.

This summer I’ve found a new way to appreciate my left hand.  I DO NOT advise you to copy my example.

I fractured my right wrist.  A steel plate screwed into the bones to keep them straight finds me in constant pain trying to get my right hand to move as it did while tapering off a whack of medication.  Mine was a regretted accident, but the unique skills of the left hand were a wonderful surprise.

The left hand is the poetic hand.

The intuitive and rational parts of lefties’ brains have a closer connection.  Their brains are structured differently in a way that widens their range of abilities, and the genes that determine left-handedness also govern development of the language centres of the brain, according to Chris McManus of University College London in his book “Right-Hand, Left-Hand”.

Left means gauche, weak, careless, awkward, maladroit, insincere, and so on… Most languages are loaded with anti-left-handed prejudice. Yet, loads of famous geniuses were lefties: Bach, da Vinci, Cole Porter, Michelangelo.

The proportion of left-handers is rising and left-handed people as a group have historically produced an above-average quota of high achievers.

There are over 1000 pieces of piano music written for just the left hand.  Leon Fleisher is a pianist who lost the use of most of his right hand through focal distonia.  His career is a testament to the life-affirming power of art.

If he had to lose use of one hand again, even though he’s right-handed, he says he’d choose to keep his left hand as it has so many advantages.  For one, the thumb of your left hand is nearer the keys which play the melody.   But there’s more.

Where’s the love in my pain ?

If you are right-handed like me, you move the brush or comb with your right hand, but do the delicate arranging of your hair with your left hand. The left hand does the poetic stuff.

Using your dominant hand is not the same only more awkward than your other hand. Each hand has its own personality and specialties.

For a few weeks, I had the use of my left hand only, and what a patient, resourceful, tender hand it is, gently comforting and encouraging my painful dominant right.

Are you on good terms with your left hand ?

Your left hand does things its own way. Keep your right hand from telling your left what to do. Be willing to be surprised.  Suddenly even your left-hand writing gets a lot more legible. Subtle changes appear which you didn’t intend, but are new and attractive.

A real life example

My friend Catherine was born left-handed. She was made to use her right hand in school, though she managed to function pretty well. Catherine always had trouble with perspective drawing with her right hand which tended to look “primitive”.

It was in one of my classes that Catherine realized she was using her left hand sometimes for more free form drawings, but her right hand for precise work, as she had been forced to do.

Here is one of her interesting, earlier works, made with her right hand.

Suddenly she decided to paint entirely with her left hand. The result was so different from anything she had done before. She kept painting from her heart ever since. This is one of her natural, left-handed works — quite a different style. With her left hand, her work is effortlessly more realistic, like Catherine’s personality.

How did this switch come about?

The crucial change came about within Catherine, by gradually gaining the self assurance to follow and trust her intuitive sense of rightness. She recognized the difference in feeling internally, though it may have flown in the face of earlier training.

Want to discover the creative personality of your left hand?

Go outside and look with nothing in mind, until a natural object wants you to pick it up.

Lull your right hand with music, meditation, the Remembrance, or whatever works, so it doesn’t think about how accurate your left hand is.

Use soft pastels or crayon on throwaway paper. Start with eyes closed.

Draw the form you feel when handling your chosen object, first with the right hand, then both hands together, then just the left hand. Make your marks over and over letting each hand improvise as it will. Once you’re into a flow, gently open your eyes as impartial observers only.

It’s important not to focus on pre-formed ideas in your right-handed mind. Sure everything may be awkward at first, but keep attentive to subtle differences.

See how soon you become creative and inventive, once you stop leading with your usual right hand, and let your left hand show its own personality.

On the other hand, can be found a helpmate.

By watching how your other side responds in its own way in a number of situations, you can build up a vocabulary of intuitive expressions. Notice what sort of subject is best done with intuition and which with your original taught way. Then you can consciously choose or mix.

By developing your ambidextrous skills, both right- and left-handedness as well as intuitive and learned skills, you will become less slanted to one approach, and more balanced in other ways.

It’s the middle of summer. I’m not suggesting that you should read a serious article about pleasure. In less than two minutes, here’s some insight into relearning what pleases you.

As simple as child’s play?

If you’re anything like the workaholic and recovering perfectionist that I am, you may find it strangely hard to know what pleases you. After years of doing what you should, how can you make art for your own pleasure unless you know what that feels like?

Every day I watch a doe with twin fawns grazing around my property. The mother has to eat constantly to provide milk enough for two growing youngsters before the fall, and still her ribs are visible.

The fawns spend much of their time playing. They butt heads, pronk with all four tiny hoofs off the ground, then run in wild circles. They act seriously immature, but they show a wisdom that caught my curiosity.

Can you remember how to play?

Look how much human children learn through play in the first few months of life. Fawns have a lot of growing to do in an even shorter time, yet these speckled twins are goofy, silly, and clearly having fun.

“Just” playing doesn’t always come easy.

Here am I in my 70th summer offering a couple of ideas caught from those tiny fawns to rediscover what pleases you.

Okay, I’ll spare you the personal details of what I’m up to in this regard, as you probably wouldn’t believe me anyway, but I can tell you it works. And, it’s really fun.

Simple guidelines

Suspend all judgment about acting your proper age. Pounce on a chance opportunity with abandon. The point is to discover things you didn’t know that please you.

Choose things you’ve never done before, or didn’t believe you could. It might be anything from simply leaving the dishes in the sink, lying in a hammock for hours, all the way to allowing yourself to fall in love for the first time.

Sometimes child’s play isn’t so simple. You might have to relearn it, but I’m finding it’s a well worthwhile study. I’d be pleased to hear what makes you happy.

“We have an infinite number of reasons to be happy, and a serious responsibility not to be serious.” (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi)