Juliette Crane is my favorite artist; and, I’m so honored to be taking an online class with her,
"How To Paint an Owl". Her work is very inspiring; and, for some reason, these owl paintings speak to me on a very deep level.
The major lesson I picked up from last week was about letting go. Our first assignment had to do with creating backgrounds for our canvasses. I can’t tell you how difficult I found it to just let go and get lost in the creative process. I feared messing up. I feared ruining what I made already. I feared doing it wrong, although I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing all the long. This is no reflection to Juliette’s teaching skills but something I realized I dealt with quite often as an artist, which is very stifling because if you're bound by this fear, there is no progression in your work. If you’re afraid to proceed, you might end up staying put where you are when you should step out and take that risk.
Big deal! We screw up. It doesn’t come out right. We mess something up. Go back and cover it up…with paint, cloth, fiber threads or whatever medium you’re using. It doesn’t matter. You can keep going over that same surface time and time and time again, which I did, until you get to a point that you’re happy with the results or you
feel its right.
She strongly recommends listening to your intuition and relying on what
feels right to you. Use what you’re drawn to. You don’t have to understand why. In the end, it will all work out and on some level, it will make sense.
There is no such thing as a mess up. Remember, mess ups are only new gateways to paths yet to be discovered. Take a deep breath, let go and enjoy the journey of the creative process. No thinking allowed. As Nike says, “Just do it”. It’s okay. You can’t go wrong.
After thought posted later that evening:
Regarding art dolls, if you don't want to redo an actual surface by painting it, tear off anything you can or add something on top of it. For example, in the post below, Meadow Sundancer, I kept removing all of the embellishments and outfits several times and reattached new ones. She was completely redone more than several times over a course of a couple of months.
