I have just finished another acrylic and painted chalk artwork, and my joy of making art is full open. This series of 47 paintings (this is number 3 so long way to go) are based on dreams I had when creating my Journey Oracle Divination deck. These Oracle card dreams may have been the origin of the images, and are contributing the title for each painting, but so much more is beginning to go on. I am having conversations with myself about how joy in art making is a gift, yet it is a gift that must be earned.
It is easy to become tangled in the clinging webs of ego and self-doubt. Is this image OK? What does that even mean? What will others think? Why do I care what others think? Is this effort not serious enough? What would make it more serious? What does that even mean?
What would seem a most dramatic meander through self-appraisal and judgement becomes a most simple process of mark making, and herein lives the joy.
The treasure in art, for me, has become the doing, and not the thinking.
And yet to honour this gift of joy, to be worthy of receiving it, I understand I must struggle and sacrifice. This is how the gift is earned.
The struggle, the sacrifice, is in making an offering of something of equal value in return for this treasure.
And like a pearl, that offering is built by slow layers, by working every day, by believing there is always more to the story.
Are you getting to finish your story?
