I’m undertaking a 1000-day reinvention project, blogging here daily to track my progress. In Friday Flash, I share an epiphany or aha moment from the past week.
I’m participating in the Women’s Caucus for Art Colorado Chapter’s plein air art festival this weekend. I’ve never tried painting en plein air so this will be new to me. I’m planning to use acrylics, as usual, but will focus on using palette knives rather than brushes, as brushes would be difficult to clean in the field. I’m heading to the Littleton Mineral light rail station, because there are interesting architectural shapes there that lend themselves to a semi-abstract style that I like.
I have enjoyed feeling inspired by different shows and events to expand my art. At the beginning of the year, I created three Casa Bonita paintings for a gallery’s Casa Bonita show. It was fun and different, and brought some new representationalism into my work.
I feel like I am missing some level of mastery, both in my painting and in my writing. I spent many years learning to paint as well as I can paint today, but I could improve upon that. I am a pretty good writer, but I could probably stand to improve upon that as well.
In Beyond Anxiety, Martha Beck offers an approach to wiring your brain for creativity and reducing anxiety:
To gain skills and open up access to the genius in your brain, start by finding some skill or activity that interests you so much you want to master it…. Next, strike the flame of ignition by watching examples of people who do this thing extremely well. Then take your absolute best shot at replicating the highest level of performance you’ve ever seen.
Spoiler alert: you will fail.
Beck suggests that getting stuck is one of the best things that can happen:
An impasse is the feeling we get when we reach the limits of our ability in any endeavor. It’s not the end of all options, but it’s the end of all apparent options. This is the point where our brains’ creativity spirals may come up with ideas we’ve never had before….
The moment we flinch…, cringing away from a creative challenge, our lives start to shrink. But if we stay in the creative game, trying all sorts of possible solutions, messing up and trying again and messing up again (but messing up better), we can trigger leaps of insight and discovery in the mysterious depths of our right hemispheres.
Maybe it’s time to challenge myself creatively. I am doing so with the plein air festival, but perhaps I need to lean into the challenge even more.