"last posted blog" Erratum...
the last line of my previous post should have read ".....will be less "frustrated" in living the way I want to live."...interesting though, that i left that word out?! :)
RAY
Thursday, July 26, 2007
...Being a "practitioner"...
Hello to all who have been waiting for my "next" post. I can't believe how long its' been, yet the evidence is in the date I posted my last blog to this site! And to any persons who may be new to this blog and have just happened to pass this way, welcome.
My attention is fleeting, to say the least, when it comes to the things I do, and the things I commit to. I have to admit that... and in noticing it, I find it funny and interesting, and laugh at myself, and know that I can choose to be different if and when I choose to do so. Hence, the long time since my last post on this blog. Other "do's" have gotten my attention.
The one thing I am never away from is my Self. I commit to being aware and in tune with how I'm feeling and what thoughts and signals are moving in me and through me each day. The cost of not doing so is too great. Being asleep to my experiences and truth is too costly a price and going to sleep is almost impossible now that I am awake and aware to the degree that I am.
Getting to the point of the title of this post....As recently as this past weekend, I was pulled to attend a 2 day oil painting technical class on the Alla Prima method. The reasons I was pulled to attend this particular class were that I had become frustrated in my ability to create painted expressions of my experience that were clear, and which represented the many facets of the images that would appear to me when I opened myself up to the creative process through painting.
The other reason was that I don't know myself to have the patience and time, when drawing or painting, to take three days to come to a final representation of what's moving through me. So the Alla Prima method, which is a one step whole approach to finishing an oil painting sounded really really good to me! I knew I was stepping into a big "I don't know what I don't know" weekend, and I was right...almost everything the teacher said, I knew almost nothing about or near nothing....
What was so interesting about it was how trained artists see "things". I learned that artists train long and hard to "not see what they see"! That is, you're not supposed to paint the "representation" of the things you see (the nominalization of "eye"). For example, the eye is not an eye, but a series of shapes like circles, triangles, and other angles intertwined, with depths of shading, colouring and different "values" (a technical term to bring your attention to the intensity of the colour you are looking at as it relates to other colours in the picture you are making.) Another concept that blew me away was that of "negative space" or angles. Those are the lines and shadings around the thing you are painting, that are "not the thing you are painting". I found out that we can make a very close representation of something, just by drawing what's around it and not the thing itself!? Neat stuff!
AND, so what? Well, as thoroughly interesting as all of this "technical stuff" was, I was also very aware that those other six persons in the class with me, who considered themselves to be artists, gave me no indication of their own awareness about what it meant to be creative!
It struck me, that these "artists" all seemed to think that the creativity was in the picture they were putting on canvas, and not in "them"! (I am quite aware of the mind reads and assumptions I am making here, but that's my experience of those moments).
On more than one occasion, as I expressed that my goals were not to become an artist, but to become better at expressing what was moving through me, the teacher of the day looked at me in wonder, and said such things like "I hope were not spoiling you with this technical stuff", "in some ways you are the perfect student by being open to everything and every note of help I offer!", "you have what is important to start with and what not to lose as an artist".
I knew I was off to a good start, even before the teacher offered his comments.
Another thing I am noticing and am reminded of is that no matter how I approach pictures or portraits, from full out expressiveness to more technical approaches of representing my experience, the "quality of the result of making a picture mostly comes down to being a practitionner! The more I do something, the better I get at it, whether that is repeating habits that don't lead to the things I want, or to breathing with intention and to being open to allowing for questions to flow without resistance through the day. I am also mindful that although "technical ability" is not absolutely necessary to expressing anything, the right approach will get you there more efficiently and probably more effectively than other methods.
So I am grateful to know now, that I need to become a much better "drawer" in order to be a better painter; that if I want to catch the depth and nuances of the expressions that are mine to make, that I need to "train my eyes diferently" than I have before, to see things differently.
Much like Life, if I have always used or relied on my mind to solve everything, or to "get it", or thought that my mind is the only tool I have to "think" with, I may be limiting the scope of what is possible for me, and certainly will be less efficient and effective at moving through the experiences that are mine to have, or not. Certainly, if I find a different way of being, of paying attention, of seeing, and breathing, and become a practitioner of these things, I will be less frustrated in living the way I want to live!
creating at the rhythm of my breath,
RAY
Hello to all who have been waiting for my "next" post. I can't believe how long its' been, yet the evidence is in the date I posted my last blog to this site! And to any persons who may be new to this blog and have just happened to pass this way, welcome.
My attention is fleeting, to say the least, when it comes to the things I do, and the things I commit to. I have to admit that... and in noticing it, I find it funny and interesting, and laugh at myself, and know that I can choose to be different if and when I choose to do so. Hence, the long time since my last post on this blog. Other "do's" have gotten my attention.
The one thing I am never away from is my Self. I commit to being aware and in tune with how I'm feeling and what thoughts and signals are moving in me and through me each day. The cost of not doing so is too great. Being asleep to my experiences and truth is too costly a price and going to sleep is almost impossible now that I am awake and aware to the degree that I am.
Getting to the point of the title of this post....As recently as this past weekend, I was pulled to attend a 2 day oil painting technical class on the Alla Prima method. The reasons I was pulled to attend this particular class were that I had become frustrated in my ability to create painted expressions of my experience that were clear, and which represented the many facets of the images that would appear to me when I opened myself up to the creative process through painting.
The other reason was that I don't know myself to have the patience and time, when drawing or painting, to take three days to come to a final representation of what's moving through me. So the Alla Prima method, which is a one step whole approach to finishing an oil painting sounded really really good to me! I knew I was stepping into a big "I don't know what I don't know" weekend, and I was right...almost everything the teacher said, I knew almost nothing about or near nothing....
What was so interesting about it was how trained artists see "things". I learned that artists train long and hard to "not see what they see"! That is, you're not supposed to paint the "representation" of the things you see (the nominalization of "eye"). For example, the eye is not an eye, but a series of shapes like circles, triangles, and other angles intertwined, with depths of shading, colouring and different "values" (a technical term to bring your attention to the intensity of the colour you are looking at as it relates to other colours in the picture you are making.) Another concept that blew me away was that of "negative space" or angles. Those are the lines and shadings around the thing you are painting, that are "not the thing you are painting". I found out that we can make a very close representation of something, just by drawing what's around it and not the thing itself!? Neat stuff!
AND, so what? Well, as thoroughly interesting as all of this "technical stuff" was, I was also very aware that those other six persons in the class with me, who considered themselves to be artists, gave me no indication of their own awareness about what it meant to be creative!
It struck me, that these "artists" all seemed to think that the creativity was in the picture they were putting on canvas, and not in "them"! (I am quite aware of the mind reads and assumptions I am making here, but that's my experience of those moments).
On more than one occasion, as I expressed that my goals were not to become an artist, but to become better at expressing what was moving through me, the teacher of the day looked at me in wonder, and said such things like "I hope were not spoiling you with this technical stuff", "in some ways you are the perfect student by being open to everything and every note of help I offer!", "you have what is important to start with and what not to lose as an artist".
I knew I was off to a good start, even before the teacher offered his comments.
Another thing I am noticing and am reminded of is that no matter how I approach pictures or portraits, from full out expressiveness to more technical approaches of representing my experience, the "quality of the result of making a picture mostly comes down to being a practitionner! The more I do something, the better I get at it, whether that is repeating habits that don't lead to the things I want, or to breathing with intention and to being open to allowing for questions to flow without resistance through the day. I am also mindful that although "technical ability" is not absolutely necessary to expressing anything, the right approach will get you there more efficiently and probably more effectively than other methods.
So I am grateful to know now, that I need to become a much better "drawer" in order to be a better painter; that if I want to catch the depth and nuances of the expressions that are mine to make, that I need to "train my eyes diferently" than I have before, to see things differently.
Much like Life, if I have always used or relied on my mind to solve everything, or to "get it", or thought that my mind is the only tool I have to "think" with, I may be limiting the scope of what is possible for me, and certainly will be less efficient and effective at moving through the experiences that are mine to have, or not. Certainly, if I find a different way of being, of paying attention, of seeing, and breathing, and become a practitioner of these things, I will be less frustrated in living the way I want to live!
creating at the rhythm of my breath,
RAY
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