Priming Your Imagination

Imagine yourself standing in the middle of an art gallery. You are the only one in attendance, as this is a private viewing. Actually, you are the artist. This is your show. The theme of the collection is Your Personal History.

Surrounding you are impressions of the people, places and things in your experience, right up to but not including the present moment.

How do you feel?

Would you like to stroll through the gallery?

Linger?

Move in?

Or would you prefer to strike a match and bolt from the room?

Before making a final decision, imagine two doors within easy reach. See yourself turning the knob to one door and finding it locked. Now try the other. It opens readily and swings wide, inviting you to enter. You step in, only to find that the room is empty except for a table and chair. The chair, you discover, fits you perfectly. Of course it does. This is your studio.

On the table in front of you is a blank canvas. Reach into the apron around your waist. Pull out a glue stick and the letters T, O, D, A and Y and paste them to the canvas. Affix the canvas to the door. Then, using whatever else you find in your apron, add lines, shapes, color and texture to the room. Do it up any way you like. This is your room. Your TODAY.

Occasionally you wander back to the gallery–to your personal history–for ideas. Or tools. Or simply a sense of groundedness, familiarity, comfort—even if you don’t necessarily like everything in it. Even if it’s in shambles. Even if it makes you weep. You’ve learned that your personal history has the power to do this. In fact, you’re beginning to see that it influences much of how you feel and think and act today. For something that no longer exists, it’s incredibly pervasive!

For better or worse, your history is yours. It’s a part of your journey. And it’s over. Done. Finished.

You can’t change the past. You can’t go back to rearrange it. You can change how you see it, and how it affects you. You must do this, however, in your studio—in the present, when you are ready. So close the door to your history, and peek in only as necessary.

Bit by bit, you can review, reframe and remodel spills and stains into something interesting. Meaningful. Possibly magnificent. Whether or not you consider yourself creative, whether you’re an experienced artist or a terrified beginner, you can do this. You can make your art. You can create recovery.

I dream my painting and then I paint my dream.

~Vincent van Gogh

The meditations in Section I were designed to help change self-defeating thinking into positive, motivational thinking which, in turn, can change how we live. In a very elementary sense we have been using thought to create action.

In Section II we flip things around and move first, think later. Through art-making we explore existing thoughts and feelings and, from them, create something new.

These deceptively simple activities can be therapeutic and enjoyable. Immersed in the process, you become less aware of time and pain. Your intuitive scope broadens. You discover, invent and rebuild. If you are true to your self the results will delight, excite, and perhaps even astound you.

Now, about that locked door; have you guessed where it leads?

On the other side of that door is your future.

You might, if you are inclined, create a sign for the door of your future space—much like the one you made for today. With just the tiniest spark of hope you can even fashion a key and turn the lock. But you cannot step inside. You can’t ever be certain of what is there.

Don’t let that stop you from imagining it.

Dream it. Pray about it. Make plans and believe in your future. It’s yours, as well. You just can’t live there. Yet.

For now, get into the studio and make your marks. Gain new perspectives. Be happy and free by creating your recovery, one moment, one day at a time.

Priming Your Senses With Water & Colour

Self-expression can be therapeutic, regardless of the medium. I choose, for a number of practical and aesthetic reasons, to paint with watercolors.

Water is odorless and simple to use. Relatively inexpensive and easy to obtain, a little goes a long way. And because it has the unique property of existing as a liquid, solid or vapor, it virtually recycles itself.

Cleansing, revitalizing, healing—water is the most versatile and necessary substance on the planet. My father refers to it as “the nectar of the gods”.  In truth, it is the nectar of life.

The essence of a human being is water.

~Masaru Emoto, The True Power of Water

The adult human body is about 70 percent water and needs input of about two quarts per day. Many of us don’t drink nearly that much, so it’s a good thing that most foods are also largely composed of this essential compound. While researching the properties of water in preparation for this section, I learned that the water content of one of my favorite foods, a vine-fresh tomato, is a whopping 95%! I had suspected that my body seems to know what it needs. Now I am convinced.

Our relationship with water is not exclusively physical. In the universal language of dreams, water represents emotion. As a liquid, water flows, unifies, and balances—is always seeking its own level. Do our emotions also seek their own level? Do our minds, on some deeper level, pursue change, balance and harmony—healing—in our behalf? I believe so. Through dreams. Through creativity. Through art. Asleep or awake, our subconscious mind is at work, seeking solutions, reeling in and tossing out hints as to how we might become more fluid, more balanced, more at peace.

Both dream and painting show in their very fabric the work of an

abstract-symbolic intelligence.

~Harry T. Hunt

Generally, I dream and create in color. Although I enjoy pencil sketching and have a few black-and-white dreams in my portfolio, I am shamelessly besotted with color. It’s seductive. Delicious. Get me a napkin. No kidding, I’ve looked at color arrangements and actually felt as though I could eat them. My favorite? I tend to gravitate to yellows, blues and greens but, in general, it’s smorgasbord, please—I want to taste everything.

Colors invite, tempt, woo our senses. Theories suggest that they engage specific emotions, and can influence how we feel. Certain colors soothe, while others excite. Some suggest stability, others—adventure. Some are warm. Some are cool. In my view, all are sensory-delectable.

When creating the paintings in this book, I chose colors at random, without an agenda. I wanted to go with the flow. To explore and express. Watercolor was the perfect medium. It may be for you, as well.

Bon appétit!