The work you do..
Hey all.
The identified self (often referred to as "ego) has a multitude of valuable uses for us as people. Without it we could not exist.
Been awhile since we've blogged together.
I've been painting my ass off and the insights and inspirations are coming on intensely these days. So I've not as much energy for blogging.
Fear not though as I will never completely cease this blog. As long as I am breathing anyway.
Onto todays topic.
The work you do as an artist is vital to the health and well being of our culture and the universe at large. It is more than a commodity of whatever value it is ascribed. It is an expression of the universe that must occur.
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| "Along the Path" by M Francis McCarthy |
I'm aware that this may strike some as airy fairy but none of us has all the answers. This blog is one place you can find a few that I've gleaned and hopefully they'll resonate if not, no worries.
However the ego makes poor art.
And yet even poor art needs to be created. And destroyed as well. As cliche as it sounds both are equally accurate statements.
If thats true, why should we try to create "good" art?
We should because it feels like the right thing to do at a core level of our beings. If your attitude as an artist is in alignment with the will of the universe, great art will be the by product.
It is the individuated self that blocks this process in an attempt to do a job it was not created to do. That job is to CREATE and that is the work of the actual self not the ego.
We get in our own way.
Often we are our own worst critics as well. As we paint we kill the baby as it's being born in our attempt to control the result or conform to misguided internal expectations.
This is why I'm reminding you that your job as an artist is valuable and important work. Even if you must struggle to let the great art come out. Rest assured that it's important or at least connected to something important.
Cheers,
A bit about "Along the Path". This is one of the high points of my old way of working and actually the culmination of many years of perfecting my old painting method.
The reference was a photo I'd taken out here in Northland New Zealand. I've cleaved quite close to it too. There is a lot of imagination in the colors and fracture though and it's straddling my old and new way of working for that reason.
Lately I've been reworking canvas' from imagination. I'm freely improving or enhancing many paintings I've done that had issues usually related to using photo reference. I've blogged about this process and it's unfolding still as self imposed restrictions are abandoned in favor of Art.
"Along the Path has a few of those issues but I'm letting it be as it's a nice painting as is and also represents the end and the peak of an old way of working.