Canvas Tote Bag

 I was painting yesterday and had some major breakthroughs not only in painting, but in life.

Laying the base layer
It's like setting the drum track/metronome

1. We Learn by Expression

"As within, so without" is a universal maxim that basically means what we see on the outside is just a reflection of what is inside of us. There are many applications of this truth, but what occurred to me while painting is that while I am painting the picture, the picture is painting me.

I know that sounds very "In Soviet Russia, road forks you" but hear me out.

As you put ink/paint/pencil to paper, you are expressing something from within yourself. It doesn't matter if you are looking at a photograph trying to replicate it, which is what I was doing here, because just the act of putting art on the outside reflects the style of the artist.

In doing so, we express something on the outside from within ourselves, and then when we stand back to look at it, we can enjoy all the pretty colors, or course correct something if it seems off. The artist must become aware of his or her expression and then tweak it to make sure it reflects what the picture, the truth, the vision that they have for it. 

It's why no one's art looks the same and why no one's life looks the same.

Sketching the important objects

2. We Must Integrate Our Mistakes

This one is very Bob Ross-ish where we don't make mistakes, we make happy accidents.

In my painting, I was going along filling in rocks and some brown paint got on the bottom of my hand. Unknowingly, some of it got on the light blue water and once you put dark on light you can't go back.

You can kinda see what I'm talking about right below the knees

But instead of being like "I must fix this" I was like, "I must integrate this".

When you try to "fix" a mistake, it's a mentality of shame like it should never have happened, so the fix is a cover up, an erasure of what happened.

When you "integrate", you acknowledge the mistake. You look at it. Straight in the face. And then with courage and fortitude you find a solution to make the mistake a part of the bigger picture.

So in this case: accidental dark on light? What if we just change the color of the dark so it works better with the light? 

Yay! We integrated!

The life application here is pretty powerful. Instead of looking at our mistakes with shame and repression, or try to forget and bury terrible things that happened to us, we can look at them head on and integrate those things into our bigger story. For instance, "I had to go there so that I could be here." 

The main character never overcomes if there is nothing to overcome.

Own your mistakes so you can self accept yourself.

3. We Must Forget In Order To Remember

Michelangelo is attributed to saying "Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."

Can we all just hold a moment of silence to appreciate how beautiful that is? I'm working on writing a song about that concept, too.

Filling in the sea foam

In this painting, as I was figuring out how to paint water on rocks, I realized that in order to reveal the light parts, I had to paint the dark around the light by working the background. 

So you don't paint the water on the rocks. You don't paint the clouds in the sky. You paint around the objects that should be there and then it just appears as though it were already there.

The life application is getting to our true nature: all we will ever be or become is already within us. It is just an act of letting go of egoic concepts and identities that reveals who we are at the core. The ego wants to paint white water streaks on the brown rocks without realizing that it is rather the absence of paint that makes the water appear. We must forget things we cling to in order to remember who we are. Get the ego out of the way and the light will naturally shine.

Added depth out to sea which actually
was not a part of the original photograph
#artisticlicense

4. Less is more

Less is always more. In my experience, this concept is paradoxically paramount in art and music.

As a creative person, when I start working on something, there is a tendency to overdo or overwork the project. Sometimes it comes from a place of enthusiasm and excitement ("oooh! I could do this, and then I could put this on this and blend it hear and then add some harmonics...") but other times it comes from a place of trying too hard to make something into something it's just not.

The wisdom here is knowing when enough is enough.

As Mike puts it, "Not all pizza has to be supreme."

I recently recorded a new song called "Soul Scream" which you can listen to for free on the cloud of sound. This song is a great example of less being more because, imho, it sounds great even though I merely used a main lead, beats, and bass. That's only three instrumentals! WHAT?!!?! But it worked so I left it alone.

Similarly with this painting. I could have kept going with ocean swirls and maelstroms but there is a beauty in leaving it light and less complex.

Added rock detail and evened out the
horizon because the earth is flat

The life application is less doing, more flowing. 

Not laziness, but effortlessness. 

Working smarter, not harder. 

Life should be easy and beautiful. It really should be. And it can be if we just let go of everything we think we have to do to make it that way.

5. Bonus: Rehearse Your Life Before It Happens

Before I started working on this painting, I did a practice painting. This was my first time really painting a person, and I know that I struggle with proportions, so before I put paint to canvas, I put it on cheap paper and work out all the kinks. 

Test the colors. Play with lighting. Find out what techniques work for which effect.

Even printers have test pages

The life application is to practice life before it happens. Visualize how you want to be. Mentally put yourself in situations before they occur so you can practice how you would like to respond in them. This is a way to practice becoming more conscious so that you get to choose how your life looks instead of just letting it happen to you.

Don't be a victim of your life. Be the creator of it.

Deep Thoughts by Allie ™ 

My finishing touches include flicking white glitter
eyeshadow on top to make it look all sparkly

Living in a daydream,

TWS

Soul Scream; Allie Harshner