Welcome.
Come on in here.
Divine incubation.
The The work of the artist is to expose things.
I'm talking about the visual artist as well as the author,
The poet,
The playwright,
Novelist,
Musician.
It exposes that space in the human being that causes that incubation,
That divine incubation to begin to transform like that cocoon,
Like that caterpillar crawling into the cocoon.
And that's why I try as hard as I can to come here and expose us to this way of thinking rather than just meet and paint.
Now all that to say,
That's all I wanted to do today.
All I wanted to do today was come here and paint with you guys.
I read through what I wrote,
I've edited it,
I spoke it out loud and made my dog crazy because when I talk it must be about her.
Yeah,
And all I want to do is toss it aside and paint with you all.
But that's only bringing half of myself to the table.
That's only being real halfway.
Some days are fine for that,
But I've scheduled this,
I've committed to this,
So I have to be true to what I signed up for,
So to speak.
That wasn't scripted.
But we've been here for four minutes,
So let's get to the script,
Shall we?
Day three,
Everyone.
Thank you for being here.
And what we're doing,
Those of you who this is your first day catching,
We are,
I am presenting you with thoughts and ideas around emotional resonance and how we respond to that,
What they mean in our body.
And then we go on to paint for 20 minutes in silence so that those emotions or that thinking through those emotions do the work in us.
And for me,
Engagement in bodily activity,
In this case of course painting,
Is a really important part of moving all of that through me.
Moving information through me,
Moving emotional response through me.
So that's the point behind both parts of this talk and action.
Do I walk my.
.
.
No.
So we're at day three.
The real mark of personal authenticity is not how intensely we can express our emotions,
But how honestly we can look at where they come from.
But how honestly we can look at where they come from.
We are killing the moment by controlling our experience.
Doing this is setting ourself up for failure because sooner or later we're going to have an experience we can't control.
The trick is to keep exploring and not bail out.
And amen to that.
Even when we find out that something is not what we thought.
That's what we're going to discover again and again and again.
Nothing is what we thought.
Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing.
There's a thought.
That's enough for today really,
But I'm going to go on.
Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing.
We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem,
But the truth is that things don't really get solved.
They come together and they fall apart again.
They come together and fall apart.
The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen.
Room for grief,
For relief,
For misery,
For joy.
This,
Thanks to Pema Chodra,
Is the heart of today's emotional exploration.
Trust.
Artists are purposed to tell others stories that cause longing for beauty and hope.
Trust.
If you are wise,
You will slip away occasionally to the secret chambers of self-imposed seclusion.
For faithful friends await you there.
Solitude,
Stillness,
Silence,
And serenity.
Indeed,
They are more than friends.
They are cradles of creativity.
That's where it all begins.
The deep place of trust must start in these quiet places William Ward speaks of.
Only when we ground ourselves individually can we then go out and meet the world with whatever tools and talents we hold in our hands,
Trusting deeply that who and what we are meant to meet with these things will be there.
Trust can be a tricky bit.
When things aren't going according to plan,
Or the ends don't meet the means,
Or vice versa,
We can so easily lose the trust with which we tripped into this life to begin with.
What do you hold on to in tough times?
What keeps trust in the forefront?
For me,
It is returning to the convictions and values that got me here in the first place.
And here,
By here,
I mean this path,
This career I've chosen.
They were first desires,
To reach more,
Teach more,
Inspire more.
Then slowly and surely,
They rooted and grew into a faithful,
Trustworthy path I am forging every day of my life.
There are also touch points I return to when all else falls apart,
And I need a reminder of what I have chosen to trust in.
This allows me to take a deep breath and keep going.
Trust.
When you feel it deeply,
It is everything.
A person can grow leaps and bounds from the smallest seed of trust when it is planted well.
If you don't have a trust point of reference right now,
Look back to your past.
Find a place where you did.
What does it feel like to land there,
In that trust point?
What does it feel like to have that conviction?
For me,
Everything real in my life grows from this point.
I have stumbled out of its protective canopy on several occasions.
Yet because of this,
I see all the more saliently how wonderfully cared for and able I am when I stay in trust's tenting.
I paint with trust every day.
I trust that there is something to be said that I get to say.
That there is something in my brush to canvas that when it first speaks to me,
Will go on to speak to someone else.
I often say that once I am finished with a work or a form to retreat idea,
They are born into the world.
This is trust.
I take the vulnerability of creating something and releasing it to the world,
Believing it will not just live,
But thrive.
It's pretty simple,
Again.
I used that word yesterday also.
I return to it often for myself.
Simple.
Simplicity.
When we realize this truth,
We also realize how we and the world are mucking it up with complexities.
So today,
Take the trust you have found,
The place it resides,
And paint.
I have chosen to work on a very important piece.
For this very reason,
I have chosen to work on this very important piece.
I trust it will become.
I trust it's going to be what it needs to be in this space we share together.
Enjoy.
Twenty minutes.
Be brave enough to trust sitting still as well.
Silence.
Sitting with your work is as important as engaging the brush to canvas.
You may see me sit still here for a little while.
Enjoy.
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