This week I had the title of this article lined up in waiting for me, just the title and a blank screen. Blank canvases can be exciting and daunting.
The title is fitting because I wanted to share a couple of things this week. You may or may not know that Michael and I are building a custom home and art studio FROM SCRATCH.
With nothing other than a small sketchbook (no napkin sketches for us), artists have so many unused sketchbooks it borders on ridiculous; we began drawing up ideas that would incorporate our daily life together and our studio life into one structure. The idea was that having everything in one spot would be more economical (cough). In the long run, it is an excellent idea. In the short term, it has been full of surprises.
This morning I will focus on the best surprise.
What has gone up is shockingly just like what we had drawn.
Why is that a surprise?
Because, as an artist, you often begin your work in one place and end up in a completely different place. You push, pull, test, and regroup, talk yourself into and out of things as you move along, or at least that's what I DO.
Often the intentions for my blank canvas don't match the result, which is neither good nor bad. It's just different.
With our house and studio project, we have people working on this who understand our ideas and actively remind us of what is "in keeping with our vision."
Once the foundation was poured and the walls and windows went in, there wasn't room for second-guessing. This has been an extraordinary lesson for an over-thinker like myself because I am the queen of making do or reframing my ideas to fit someone else's needs.
This time, it looks like the drawings! It looks like what originally inspired us.
What can a blank canvas, slate, or empty lot teach us?
For me, it is NOT to push, pull and regroup quite as much. I am sticking with some ideas that have caught hold of me from Italy. I have an exciting show in Los Angeles at The Other Art Fair in September (more details to come!), and the deadline feels looming when it is layered on top of a custom home build, family events, and teaching art classes.
But something inside me feels determined to stick with my inspiration, follow the thread, stay tuned into my "way in," and create from this space.
Tips for standing in front of a blank canvas and being OK with it
Have several blank canvases ready to go. It limits the scarcity mindset, makes the canvas in front of you less precious, and allows for your ego to understand that there's always room for more.
Work your ideas onto other mediums and surfaces. Mixing up materials should be an obvious solution to help us deal with tightness or stage fright. Why is this one an easy one to forget? Look at the breadth of Matisse's work! Incorporating watercolor into my practice has kept me loose and helps me stay in the flow state.
Just begin. One of the reasons we don't just start is often old-fashioned fear. I've talked about this before, and it's not a fight or flight fear, but it can be the fear of disappointing ourselves. Accept success or failure, brilliance or mediocrity before you even begin, and just get started. If this work of art doesn't say exactly what you wanted to say, you will always have more blank canvas waiting for you.
Stay open to inspiration in its many forms. Rick Rubin talks about focusing on lightning bolt moments and remaining aware of the space before because lightning does not strike unless the conditions are right and to the space after because electricity dissipates if you do not capture it.
For me, these moments aren't always bolts. More often than not, they are whispers. I let memories and images swirl around in my head, and they murmur "what if" questions that conjure the emotion I want to capture.
This is why I let my mood boards and my postcard images take root inside me. I will feel color shifts happen, or I can feel something that wants to take me into the shadows of an image. It's good to know where your lightning bolts might show up.
Whispers, imagery, and emotions are a steady "way in" for me.
Soon, I'll introduce you to some artists that mine old masters' work as their inspired "way in" to their painting practices.
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