Embracing uncertainty and change; practicing patience and trust
This colour palette and landscape has changed several times in front of me as I’ve worked… much like the way a landscape changers as the seasons change. (And how I have changed through the seasons of my life.)
Working intuitively, making it up as I go is teaching me to practice more patience and trust…
to let the artwork (and myself) enjoy wandering and meandering and not have to get to the finish so quickly. To not have to know how it ends.
to stay calm as we go through ugly phases and days of not knowing if I’ll be able to resolve it at all.
to let go of parts I loved or ideas of what I thought it was going to be. Even though I don’t know if the new iteration will be better.
Such valuable and fitting life wisdom for living with all of the uncertainty and vulnerability in life.
I’ve been listening to poet, Ross Gay’s audiobook, “Inciting Joy” as I work. It’s been the perfect company. He’s a big fan of slowing down - so you can be more open and sensitive to all of life. I love how I can feel how open and sensitive he is - not just from his words, but even more so, from his voice and rhythm and breathing. And I love how I can feel that slowing me down and opening and sensitizing me too.
The strong through-line in his stories of the sacredness of connection and belonging has been wonderfully provocative, inspiring and apt as I fumble and feel my way around, piecing together fragments of memory, imagination, grief, and hope on the canvas as I work on my Topophilia series.
