Heartsong Studio

 If learning someone else’s method of making art turns you off, you may have thought you just didn’t have what it takes. You may want to reconsider and value your instinct in this article: Do you resist learning second-hand techniques ?

I was always the kid who longed for a pony every Christmas. Of course I never got one, but I never stopped hoping. When life gave me trouble, I would dig and dig, reasoning that with all this horse manure there was bound to be a pony in here somewhere.

Breaking horses – that’s what it was called.
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When horsemen used to take wild horses for their own use, they would first break them. It was their spirit that was broken, and sometimes their bodies too. They used force to make the horse obey their wishes which often took a week or more. The horse would obey out of fear because the cruel treatment forfeited any possible friendly cooperation.

The resistance you may feel in trying to adopt someone else’s methods of art making, could be a true and healthy instinct. We’re often used to blaming ourselves for not going along with the program, that we may fail to appreciate the nature of our resistance.

It was not until recently, in my sixth decade, that I’m starting to realize I’ve actually uncovered many ponies. We all have ponies inside, and the ones we long for are wild and free. There is something about horses, especially wild, unbroken ones which reflect our natures in their pristine form. There is such a healthy wisdom in not being tamed, never giving up your freedom.

Your wildness is the basis of integrity.
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If you believe that most of the time you can discover how to do things yourself, this is your integrity calling. When we feel forced, we become resourceless, but when we feel free, we are resourceful. You can only ride your creative potential freely by not losing your independent spirit. There’s a distant, sure calling to “hold onto your wildness.”

If you compromise and allow your wild horse to be tamed, you give away your essential gift, your free spirit. We form a trusting relationship not by controlling our wild potential but by earning our place as a fit leader while remaining ever the student of our inner wisdom.

The art of horse whispering.
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Nowadays, they no longer need to tame wild horses by breaking them. They don’t actually whisper to the horse, they listen to the horse instead. Horses ‘speak’ in their own language. By observing closely the body language of horses, sometimes called ‘Equus’, a good horseman can get a wild horse to join him in about 10 minutes.

Be your own artist whisperer.
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This is exactly the way you can discover and join your own wild potential. Be willing to learn your own unique visual language. You can actually observe your natural way of making marks when you start in your heart in response to a chosen subject.

Then, staying in connection with your heart’s inspiration, you can ask this new entity what it needs to come into being. In the same way, you can discover the most appropriate method needed to manifest it’s presence in the world.

What about learning the basics ?
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The real basics are what come before any method.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” (Albert Einstein)

You can learn about how to use watercolours, acrylics, oils, or any other media, in hundreds of books, or there are classes offered everywhere. But you can also figure it out for yourself, by trial and error. Methods are just common sense.

Anything else: principles of art, colour theory, or perspective, are all theories which might interest you. They were all inventions by other artists to serve the birthing of their work. They were analyzed into a method after the fact. But they’re only really helpful if they serve the birth of your present interest right now.

Take a few minutes to sit quietly.
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*** Center your awareness inside. Then, ask your heart to show you what your new work needs in order to become real. Imagine it coming into focus, not how it looks so much, but what it feels like.

*** Take some spare pieces of paper and experiment till you get close to what you were shown that your new baby needs.

You know you can’t create alone, unless you’re God.
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Just like horse whisperers join with horses and together form a new partnership, so can you work in partnership with your heart’s wisdom. Working from your heart in this way, you are more creative than you can possibly know. You can invent and discover your own unique methods for every need.

There’s something so satisfying and powerful about embracing instead of resisting your inner wisdom !