Art – Do you dream of artistic products – paintings, sculpture, film – or artistic endeavors such as performance and construction? Do you get ideas for fresh pieces and experience nonconformist thinking that seem to evaporate upon waking? Art is our poetic confrontation with the world, it is also our prime avenue for non-verbal healing. Only non-verbal healing can address pain we can’t even quantify. Your inner self is signaling to you that it is time for you to access another language – art – become expert in its terms, and start inventing some of your own. Only art can establish the connection with others required to nourish you now.
You Are An Artist – Every single one of us chooses mode and objects of expression, consciously or unconsciously, every single day. We buy one object over another because it gives us pleasure, we arrange our living spaces to express some intangible quality about ourselves – a self-definition that signals to others who we are and where we are on our journey.
Challenge – Art demands individuality. We begin by copying but we must move on to expressing our uniqueness or our soul can’t evolve. If we are happy being part of an unthinking mass we are truly “unborn.” This exploration will grant you a deep peace about being alone with yourself, a strong confidence in who you really are and a feeling of spiritual value.
Danger – This exploration is awkward at first, and in other people’s eyes it may remain awkward forever. Why wouldn’t you copy what’s popular? Why not mimic the uncontroversially successful? The problem is, while you are doing that the core of your self-hood is dying like an unwatered plant. And if your soul is dying, you are dying. Also, being bullied by the “art enforcers” is not the only danger here because we bully ourselves worse than they could ever do. Constantly shaming yourself as a no-talent, pretending poseur is horrifyingly destructive to our precious infant specialness struggling for life. Make a resolution to start supporting yourself. The fact that a work is unsuccessful, even a horrific mess, doesn’t mean it isn’t an advance for your vision, insight and style. These are the building blocks of creation. Don’t get hung up on approval. You need teachers, not fans. Read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.
Opportunity – Open your Dream Journal. If you familiarize yourself with the lives of artists you will instantly see MESS EVERYWHERE. For the purposes of confidence building, the disastrous misfires among artists you admire the more helps you respect your own efforts and forgive your failures. Astonishing talent does exist – we learn less from these natural geniuses, much as we admire them, and more from artists who seem more in tune with our own two steps forward, four steps back methods of composition. We are trying to build the confidence to experiment. You don’t have to call yourself “an artist” if that’s too intimidating (most of us have day jobs) – you can say you’re “communing with yourself on a psychic level, and learning the language to interact with others more deeply. Because you are. It enormously enhances our pleasure in day to day existence!
Models & Mentors – “Creativity takes courage” – Henri Matisse
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see” – Henry David Thoreau
“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight without vision”
– Helen Keller
“You were born an original, don’t die a copy” – Jon Mason
“Life beats down and crushes the art in your soul to remind you that you have one” – Stella Adler
“There are no rules, only confidence, aplomb, style & joy” – Neil Gaiman
Mantra – “I create”
Meditation –
Haiku: In the Art Monastery
Silence blooms; bold
Heart plunges
Deep;
Dares blood;
Mind annexes Sun
Births
Moons
Alysse Aallyn 
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