What to do when I don’t know what I’m doing?

This presentation is the result of analyzing how to approach an unknown language that emerges out of a deep need to develop creativity.

When we feel the impulse to paint, to generate shapes, from a spontaneous place, we find ourselves before a language that is difficult to elaborate. At the same time, a paradigm is created, as the expression of a simple impulse could be confused with a deliberate act that may be within anyone’s reach.

It is worth noting that this seemingly senseless and licentious act is one of the most demanding acts we face when we want to develop our creative language and to know what we do when we don’t know what we are doing.

Walking this path requires that we break free from our traditional systems of learning and communicating with ourselves to generate a new one. We are all born with a potential, that is, with a virtue to develop.
This virtue is energy waiting to be released, encapsulated may be, that expresses itself very shyly. If we give it a chance, however, it starts opening out and gaining an identity that will surprise us and guide us in the future. In such an opening, we are able to recognize part of our higher conscience and we find the content of our creative expression.

This potential we talk about resides in our creative center, in our vital center, and as we develop it, we gradually discover the language of the soul, a tool that helps us refine our spirit and our capacity to take it to a conscious level. The creative impulse is part of this vital energy that struggles to be recognized by our conscience.

The established system of traditional learning could be understood within the terms of composition, balance, laws of colors, etc. These would stand for established maxims that act as contention, that show which direction to take, that reduce our level of anxiety, since they put the responsibility on the outside, because theory is what determines if what we do is right or wrong. Once we understand this, if we take these maxims as ends in themselves, they will limit the possibility of getting to know our own system, or message. These concepts are constructive if we use them as elements to nourish our inner path but never as ends in themselves.

Our first challenge, then, is to break free from this established system to generate a new language and a new way of communicating with ourselves, and thus be able to know what we do when we feel the impulse to generate, yet not knowing what we are doing. In this new system of communication, the right answer comes from artists themselves only if they are able to connect with their needs and unlock their full potential.

If I play to invent a word to summarize this circuit, I would say “PIARE”. This would act as a guide for our new linguistic system.
P: imPulse I: Intuition A: Action R: Reflection E: Emotion
Our impulse is a need, an urge that uses intuition to produce an action that we can work through reflection guided by our emotion.

This would somehow describe the new circuit of communication that we could be establishing to favor the way in which we communicate with ourselves and develop our potential.

In this case, the need of the artist becomes the subject of his or her art. For this to happen, we must have an active curious eye and work on acceptance in our search —a search in which the process is more important than the final result—, since from this perspective our works would represent different aspects of a same painting, which we will continue painting for the rest of our lives.

Who better than subjects themselves, who recognize their own need of expression, to determine if the result is close or not to their desire? The power would reside in artists themselves rather than in the laws of a book.

If we want to reside in the creative world, we must run the risk of not ensuring a result. The creative act implies the intuitive (because it is the intelligence of the universe), universal synchronicity. The creative act implies a rupture with the laws that fight against the new, against the organic, against evolution, against discovery. The creative act is improvisation synchronized with the right need, in due time and form, of action and emotion.

Playing with the creative world is to knock down the idea of the impossible to understand that, as long as we recognize our need and nourish it, we will reside in the world of our potential to grow without limits in our expansion of universal consciousness, where we are not longer one but a whole with the universe.
 
Guide of simple and specific questions that help us establish a dialogue and channel our work
– What colors do I want to paint with?
– What tools do I feel like exploring or could I explore?
– What happens if I explore the material without creating anything?
– Can I paint with my fingers? And with my hands? And why not with a cloth?
– What happens if I paint on wet paper? And if I pain on the floor? On a table or an easel?
– Where do I feel more comfortable?
– What part of the work do I enjoy the most?
– Do I like the palette I used? Would I like to change it? And if the answer is “I don’t know”, what if I try one option and then the other?
– What type of structure (shape) does my work propose? It is organic, geometric? What if I turn the stain around and look at it from different angles?
– When I paint, do I feel fear? Is it better if I pain for longer periods? What happens if I paint on a piece of paper that I don’t care about and I can throw away later?
– If I don’t like what I stained, what can I do? Wash the canvas? Is that possible? What if I try?
– If for a week I paint without paying attention to the results, but exploring what can be done with the material, will that be of any use?

If we learn to look at our work with this curious eye, we will start worrying less about the result and we will enjoy the process. At the same time, intuition will gain strength, since it will be the one guiding us in this system, and very slowly our previous scheme will fall down so that we can start the dialogue from a different perspective. From this place of making questions, I will learn to listen to my need, and my work will gradually synchronize with my desire.
 
Some behavior tips
– Lower expectations in connection with results.
– Focus expectations on enjoying the process and developing curiosity.
– Play to see what happens.
– Break free from circuits of habits.
– Experience with unknown elements.
– Be aware of my feelings of fear, tension or being too demanding about an objective.
– Listen carefully to the voice of my feelings and follow my intuition. That inner voice that whispers the direction my desire is heading to is essential for my evolution.

RM