John, thank you for your advice the other day, you've helped me find my way back to my path, and the art is flowing once again!
This is all so beautifully said, thank you for this and for the stand that you take for all of us. You make a difference in my life, daily now.
In my art practice, I like to frame this concept as left brain vs right brain.
My left brain can't paint. My left brain is overdeveloped, as a consequence of a lifetime that you described, 35 years in a corporate career that rewards results over all. Left brain is still needed, it helps keep me organized and keeps the bills paid and the lights burning.
But right brain is where all the REALLY good stuff lives. That's where I can create from.
I see my left brain as: task-oriented; performance-based; fast; masculine energy; time-bound; anxious; pushing; striving; grasping; pushing away; closed; ego.
I see right brain as: creative; timeless; slow; gentle; feminine energy; accepting; calm; open; universal.
My right brain is where I trade the cramped, grasping energy of ego for the spaciousness of ego dissolution and flow. When I'm fully in right brain, there is no ego, no anxiety, no grasping or avoiding, just the pure BLISS of creating, without thought, without ego.
The words in our conversation the other day that landed the most for me include:
Downshift: oh boy, my (left brain) Taskmaster part does NOT like that word. He's been trying to control my art practice, and that just doesn't work. He wants to go faster, not slower. Under his guidance, my art becomes lifeless and stops flowing.
Garden (vs assembly line): I really FEEL that word. That's probably the best word to describe the feeling of my art studio, when I'm in flow. I want to make a sign in my studio that visually illustrates garden > assembly line.
I love this one, John. Your description of the garden of creativity brings to my mind a conversation either dear friends I had a couple years ago where we arrived at a new definition of Spirituality. “The art of cultivating a more direct experience of reality.”
Productivity doesn’t do a damn thing. One has to make space, notice, allow experience to arise, remove what no longer serves, take time, be patient and curious.
John, thank you for your advice the other day, you've helped me find my way back to my path, and the art is flowing once again!
This is all so beautifully said, thank you for this and for the stand that you take for all of us. You make a difference in my life, daily now.
In my art practice, I like to frame this concept as left brain vs right brain.
My left brain can't paint. My left brain is overdeveloped, as a consequence of a lifetime that you described, 35 years in a corporate career that rewards results over all. Left brain is still needed, it helps keep me organized and keeps the bills paid and the lights burning.
But right brain is where all the REALLY good stuff lives. That's where I can create from.
I see my left brain as: task-oriented; performance-based; fast; masculine energy; time-bound; anxious; pushing; striving; grasping; pushing away; closed; ego.
I see right brain as: creative; timeless; slow; gentle; feminine energy; accepting; calm; open; universal.
My right brain is where I trade the cramped, grasping energy of ego for the spaciousness of ego dissolution and flow. When I'm fully in right brain, there is no ego, no anxiety, no grasping or avoiding, just the pure BLISS of creating, without thought, without ego.
The words in our conversation the other day that landed the most for me include:
Downshift: oh boy, my (left brain) Taskmaster part does NOT like that word. He's been trying to control my art practice, and that just doesn't work. He wants to go faster, not slower. Under his guidance, my art becomes lifeless and stops flowing.
Garden (vs assembly line): I really FEEL that word. That's probably the best word to describe the feeling of my art studio, when I'm in flow. I want to make a sign in my studio that visually illustrates garden > assembly line.
Thank you for all of this Jim. I am with you in the downshift and the garden. <3
I love this one, John. Your description of the garden of creativity brings to my mind a conversation either dear friends I had a couple years ago where we arrived at a new definition of Spirituality. “The art of cultivating a more direct experience of reality.”
Productivity doesn’t do a damn thing. One has to make space, notice, allow experience to arise, remove what no longer serves, take time, be patient and curious.
Thank you Scott, the spaciousness, the cultivation, the pruning, the patience.... maybe counterintuitive at first, but so central to our creating. <3
So beautifully said.