To be an artist, or a creative – means to seize the opportunity to gain control of your mental health. It’s not therapy – yet it is therapeutic. Doesn’t make a lot of sense, I know but…bear with me.
Incrementally, I make a little progress with my art. Tiny steps. A path unfolds. It becomes a way to distance myself from bad thoughts – unwelcome influences.
I am trying to replace those things with something more productive. Because my focus is more geared towards a beneficial activity. Hopefully something healing. Something to induce positivity – to make my own outlook more positive. To gradually reduce the blame or resentment towards someone or something negative in my life. To unblame. By degrees… The picture itself is sort of immaterial – in a way, it’s the process that counts.
Unlike music – which I did for a long while – you become more self reliant. Really, I think to make music you need others. Someone to bounce ideas off. To say; this avenue might be worth pursuing. Ideally, somebody to listen as well. Soon enough, you will see if they are interested.
With pictures: visual images – you’ll eventually see for yourself – you’ve got source material stretching back many millennia. Cave art, for instance. Stuff you can draw on. Draw from..
You don’t even need much in the way of equipment or technology. A couple of colours maybe. A brush. Even a handy stick will suffice.
Actually, with only one colour you are up and running – a line can take you anywhere… I’ve come to value drawing more and more. To generate ideas. To get into the right frame of mind. To draw a quick sketch of a painting I’m working on. Maybe I’m stuck. I can’t decide which direction to take it in. There might be something wrong with the composition – how it’s structured. To see the contrast between light and dark more clearly. Is it a face or one object in particular? I can see how it fits in the space better if I do a drawing first.
I was told about the importance of drawing at Art school. I didn’t get it to begin with. I got there in the end…This is how it happened….