Lead By Imagination

  The Legend of Bob Ross My mother painted. She watched Bob Ross. The paintings now hang here and there in our house. Bob Ross' paintings don't hang in anyone's house. He's still painting on TV, YouTube, and now a new generation loves him.

Here's my photo of Vincent Van Gogh's cafè today --photo taken November 2019. As I stood across the street to take the photo, I imagined Van Gogh standing next to me. "Not the same," he whispered. I didn't ask him whether he meant there's a difference in me just snapping a photo and him creating the painting, or maybe the cafè looks less romantic than when he'd been inspired to paint its portrait. I walked by the cafè at night, as well. Closed. Not the same. In many ways, of course, the whole city of Arles has changed from what we might imagine it looked like when Van Gogh walked the streets. It's still ruggedly handsome like Van Gogh. The distress becomes more obvious outside the "tourist" area. Arles lacks the beauty one hopes to find in Provence's villages. The unchanging charm of Avignon and Cassis and St. Rémy take the visitor back to another time long ago. Arles feels real and well worth exploring. Van Gogh's f...

Creative activities reduce stress . The major studies looked at creating visual art, https://www.wassilykandinsky.net/museum-75.php but I've no doubt all creative exploration can reduce stress. We could call it play. Not competitive play, because that may spike someone's anxiety. Real play where no one loses. Imagination leads the way.

Life means process. Always ongoing, never finished, moving forward to engage imagination along the way. A painting might be finished eventually, but not so with people; we keep changing. Movement and change fill our lives with meaning. The challenges along the way help us grow and keep us focused on the process of life. We live in the ever changing progression of every day, week, month, year, decade...; we can never fail because life provides new opportunities for learning to overcome the challenges, to become fully alive. Like good yeast, we embody the natural energy to help the world grow. We are not the finished product, not the bread itself. Bread is finished when it comes from the oven. Then, it cools and is sliced and begins from that moment to grow stale. At best it's a good breakfast toast. When breakfast ends, the toast has been consumed. Perhaps we need to use more color in the painting of our lives. Paint colors can be blended together to make more colors, dee...

Nancy Hellis , author of The Artist's Journey, lays out and examines FOUR traps to avoid as an artist. Create your art as exploration. The journey of art is inner focused. Self-expression looks within. Art releases the expression and our identity emerges through evolution. Art is a leap into the unfamiliar. I have lingered in one and sometimes all four of the traps. Frequently. Even continually. 1. I must acquire the technique first. 2. What will the real artists say about my artwork? 3. I'm not a real artist. 4. Fear of vulnerability in expressing myself. As a writer, the same traps swallowed me up for a long time. Even after multiple publications and success as an editor for others' work, I stumble into the traps. Hellis leads us into daily practice for the development of one's art as regular exploration of the elusive deepest work. The most wicked self-doubt comes from thinking "real artists" do not need webinars, classes, mentors, etc.; theref...