Creativity

The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.–Pablo Picasso

Click on “Creativity,” (the title of this post) to get to the site I want to share with you today about where creativity comes from. I think all artists ponder on this question as they go about the creative process. For me, it’s an easy question to answer. I believe the gift of creativity comes from God. For me it is a sacred gift, one that blessings me through my own paintings as well as the works of others, especially that of my students.
Angela True, an artist I spoke about in my last blog, helped me to get in touch with the divinity of this process again. She has her own style of connecting with the spirit within her. She begins by “romancing the canvas.” As we discussed how she might further do this, I began to get excited about my own form of romancing art.
That afternoon my 16 year-old art student came to class to work on a portrait of a Spanish Dancer which she plans to enter into a state-wide art competition next year. Suddenly, as I observed her paint, I said; “I know what I am going to do next, I am going to paint a portrait of you painting a portrait. I was excited. Not only could I see the unfolding of the painting, I knew immediately it would be a real challenge….something I presently need to get me going again.
It is true that there is a plateau to the learning curve, and if we are motivated to go beyond this plateau as artists we are in danger of either doing the same painting, in varying forms, over and over and over….well some artists are so sucessful at this, they would laugh at me for not being happy doing this all the way to the bank!
For awhile I was happy to live with the comfort of knowing I had become a painter…after 25 years of serious painting it was time. It took awhile, but I realized I had become bored, not with teaching but painting the same kinds of paintings over and over.
Now, I have set myself up…I will either have egg all over my face, or when my student Shana comes next week, I will have romanced my canvas and be ready to face the challenge. In the past, I have stayed a way from doing portraits becausing of my beliefs that to do them one would have to spend all of their painting time pursuing this genre. At age 70, why should I limit myself in such a away.
It is because of the miracle and mystery of how Jesus Christ can make us new each day, that I can feel this way, and look forward to being in my second childhood! Just don’t tell my children I feel this way, they might decide they are my parents and feel a need to quench my spirit!!

http://womenofgodartretreat.net

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