Getting Unstuck: The Power of Creative Flow
I’m an artist. Not your prolific exhibiting kind, more of the stop, start, stop, wrestle with what the hell am I doing type of artist. I’m in the wrestling phase. I feel stuck and discontent with the way I’m painting. There’s just a constant stream of questioning that comes with the territory of wanting to make art and it’s totally inhibiting my flow of creativity. I know I’m over thinking and I need to loosen up; I need to get unstuck.
As I open the door of to the Creative Continuum studio, I can feel my tense shoulders relax and my natural curiosity arise. A bit like a lazy dog that bounces up hearing the promise of its owners coming home. Inside I can feel my creative hunger activated and ready to eat.
The art therapy session began easy enough. We choose objects from around the room that resonate. Everywhere I look, there’s something that sparks my imagination. Shelves of figurines and plastic animals for sand play, natural found objects, leaves, shells, a birds nest on the window sill. A plastic spider catches my eye, creepy; I move on and pick a few other things. A small hand woven basket, plastic blue wren and a colourful wooded arc; I go back and pick up the spider. I arrange the found objects together on my sheet of paper and we start drawing around them. Chalk, pencil, oil pastel, words and colour come forth from the objects and onto the paper. I placed the spider coming out of the nest and wrote in big letters, SCARY next to it.
After a few minutes we shared our own insights, took the objects off the paper then we were meant to continue drawing adding another layer. At this layer, Tania got the paints out and encouraged me to do the same I hesitated. Are you shore? Paints are messy? There’s not enough time! The paper’s not thick enough. Did I say it was messy? In my head the list went on! It made just as much sense to announce a stamped of buffalos are due to come through the studio any minute now, and that’s why we cant paint! Realistically it took, one minute, maybe two before Tania had colour on her palette, brush in hand and paint on paper. Could it be that simple? I took visual notes and followed suit. It’s like she opened the door and I walked in behind her. I thought times like these, its okay to follow. Its ok to watch how someone does something with ease with something that seems personally difficult. I said to myself “Carpe diem, if she can do it, so can I.”
Soon enough I had a big fat paintbrush full of blue and it was moving across the page. Blue waves of paint, hot pink bursts and lemon yellow streaks. What followed was a rush of energy, a visceral, whole body feeling flowing with creative life force energy. Talk about Kundalini rising! It was so instant, like turning on the stereo with some kind of Guns and Roses epic guitar solo. Instant rock star feeling, hair flying; I was totally rockin’ it!
I felt free to paint and it freed me. The loud judging critic voices took a back bench for a while. Usually they say things like “What’s the point of that painting” or “A 5year old could do better than that”; which in fact, I did have someone say to me about my work. They didn’t know I was the artist and I didn’t have the gall to tell them. I just swallowed the biggest knotted fur ball in my throat and said something really lame. I mean, what do you say to that?
Yet today my spirit is alive, well and awake. I felt the power of creativity I know to be true with passion and purpose. At some point my circular movements became a deep blue arc on the page, a smiling ship with a big open eye. I remember reading somewhere that a painting is never finished, It just stops at interesting places. This was a good place to stop and breath it all in. Art Therapy, expressive painting, what ever you want to call it, really is a process of transformation with unexpected discoveries at every corner. I was curious to see how life would be with this open door of creativity flowing.
Happy exploring!
Kathleen Grace
