Living the Creative Life

I was recently making a list of the benefits I have found in my own life concerning art and intentionally living a creative life on a day to day basis. The plan is to write a book illustrated with my own art to leave for my children and grandchildren in hopes that the things I have learned over the years will be made available to them and help them throughout their own lives. The list started out as a rationale to show others the benefits that the tools of art and creativity bring to the human condition. I was stunned with where this all went.

In this article I want to give an example of the scope that living the creative life can bring to anyone willing to pursue this path. The avenue that creativity takes in my life happens to be art, but creativity is part and parcel of life in general. The particular method of expression I use most is collage. Below is a picture I did 28 years ago. I titled it "The Cycle of Life."

The History

I was doing my student teaching to finish out my art education degree at the time. One of the projects I had for my class was to do marbling and then use that marbling as the beginning point for a collage. I did this picture as my example.

I did not have a theme for the collage. I just started putting images together that seemed to fit, that felt right to me at the time. In the end I saw that it seemed to depict the cycle of life, hence, the title. It is only now, twenty-eight years later, that I have come to see how I operated on my intuition in the execution of this work, and, in fact, all my art. I have intentionally been developing the skill of listening to my inner self, learning to trust the process and my subconscious, and using quotes, images, and colors that speak to me at the time. While the particular piece I am showcasing here does not include a written quote, my artwork always has a message usually intended for myself. It seems to speak to others as well. That others "get" my art is a side benefit and a lovely gift.

The Benefits

What is beneficial is a personal thing. What may be beneficial to some may not be beneficial to others. The really important thing in my mind is recognizing that very few things in life are absolute. That they are in fact subject to change (metamorphosis), which is a constant factor in growth of any kind, including what we think we know. The few things I chose to list here are what I have found to be basic foundational benefits to me at this point in my life and may be of possible benefit to others. These things are in a constant state of evolution in my own life. I do not expect others to think as I do. My hope in sharing is to inspire thoughtful consideration, not to make others see or understand what I think I see and understand. You are not me, nor am I you. Sharing a few things that have proven beneficial for me to know and understand is one way of doing what I can to serve others.

I have struggled for years with thinking that I need to do art that "sells"—that is, art that pleases others—while being plagued with an attitude of perfectionism. One of the many benefits for me of living the creative life is recognizing that perfectionism is a cruel taskmaster that chains you in the dungeon of "you're not good enough" and "you'll never be good enough, so why bother." An attitude of perfectionism sows self-doubt and lack of worthiness. One's worth and value have nothing to do with being perfect in word or deed. I have value because I exist. I am. That is sufficient.

For me, art is all about the message and sharing that in the most efficient way possible. It is my contribution to mankind. The wisdom expressed in each work is not 'new,' but merely my interpretation of priceless truths that I want to get deep down into my own soul. Self-discovery is the main aim I strive for. Being able to share it with others is a perk.

Discovering 'self' is a major benefit of art and creativity, out of which flows every other benefit. Consistent self-examination expressed through creative endeavors—that is living a creative life—helps me to understand and reshape my view of life, from the small, seemingly unimportant likes and dislikes I have, to contemplating the universe and a Creator who made it all. The human ability and desire to be creative and live a creative life gives purpose and meaning to existence.

Through the creative process I have learned that the purpose of life is about connectedness and relationships. The relationship with one's self determines how other relationships will be throughout life. In believing this, I place self-discovery at the top of my list of needs and priorities.

Everything overlaps. Lessons are learned in pieces and at progressive levels. Regularly looking back is necessary to understanding what you know, for gaining a broader perspective of your life in general, and seeing how far you have progressed up the spiral of learning and growing. I have found it impossible to love your neighbor if you don't love yourself. For me creativity has become a major tool and vehicle for the practical application of these truths to my life, helping me to come out of an often self-centered isolationist mentality.

This brings me to my current interpretative understanding of "The Cycle of Life," which will not necessarily be what others will get out of it. That's okay. I am using it here to showcase how the subconscious mind is constantly at work in the background and how we need to learn to recognize it and trust it. It fascinated me to discover that everything I think I understand about this picture was hidden in my subconscious mind years ago, waiting for me to gain the experience and understanding to be able to interpret the greater depths of the message through the images. In other words I knew all of this 28 years ago when I put the images together, but was unable to put any of it into words at a conscious level. The subconscious speaks through images. We interpret the images through the screens of our current conscious understanding. Thus, the importance of regularly looking back to find the hidden meaning in the images of our own artwork and creativity.

Images are the native language of the imagination. - Brent Eviston

 

The potential for healing that comes through creativity and self-discovery is powerful. Albert Schweitzer is quoted as saying that 'all healing is self-healing.' I have come to understand the truth of that statement. The gifts of creativity and art are tools available to everyone for self-discovery, healing, learning, and living life to its fullest. Accessing them requires letting go of perfectionism and regularly exercising courage to look inside and face one's self.

'The Cycle of Life' recently was hung in a local gallery. At the opening reception I was fascinated by other people's interpretations of my artwork. For this particular piece, in trying to understand the intended meaning, one woman wanted to know the biblical references I had in mind when I did the work. My answer: none. Even though the showing was only a couple of months ago, I, myself, could not have put into words at that time what is written here about the effects of the subconscious and intuition on my creative expression. Being able to explain this to her might have been of help in her desire to process and understand what she was seeing, enabling her to fit it into her own personal framework of understanding. That she spent so long studying the piece meant it was impacting her deeply on some level. That kind of impact and interest is extremely gratifying to me on several levels.
Much of what I've written here is fresh revelation for me, and a huge benefit of living creatively. I love that. So, after hearing other's comments and gaining some new personal experiences recently, below is what I personally have progressively come to see in the images, color, and placement within this picture 28 years after its creation.

The Interpretation

The title states the most obvious theme of this work, denoting birth on through to death. Most people seem to get that easily enough. However, making the effort to interpret art implies taking the time to really look at a piece, thinking about what the individual images, composition, and color meant to the artist, and what it might mean to the viewer. Examining one's own internal emotional reaction would seem to be the next obvious step. People are only drawn to art that evokes an emotional response of some sort. The more intense the emotional reaction generated, the more drawn we are like steel to a magnet. As an artist one of my desires is to evoke a strong emotional response that will lead the person into thinking more deeply about the meaning of the work, asking themselves why it resonates within them, and thus encouraging their own self-discovery process.

The woman on the left looks like she is in distress from the birthing. This can refer to actually giving physical birth, but also, birthing one's emotional and mental self. The child could also denote one's continued mortality in this world, the continuation of the generations. The mushroom above her denotes darkness. Some types of mushrooms grow in the dark. Darkness to me means ignorance, unknowing. Life is all about learning and growing, coming out of the darkness of not knowing, into the light of knowing and wisdom. The figure on top of the mushroom looks both young and old to me. Young could denote being watched over by peers, etc., while old could mean a spiritual being who is connected to us via the mushroom. We grow in the dark, so to speak, but there is someone taking an interest in our growth. We are not alone in the pain and suffering that so often accompanies the growth process.

The woman who appears to almost be drowning in a whirlpool is indicative of many of the hard things we go through during a lifetime, seeming barely able to keep our head above the water. The butterfly with a woman's face speaks of hope through metamorphosis during the growth process. Something to think about: the caterpillar builds its own chrysalis around itself to protect itself during the actual process of change. Given that I believe we are basically the sum total of the choices we make throughout all the experiences of our life, we, like the caterpillar, make our own chrysalis, our own vehicle for change, many times over during a lifetime.

Then there is the old one on his deathbed. The hands on the left and right seem to be turning the pages of life. The marbled pages speak of the blend of darkness and light and the chaos that we experience in the learning process. The moon sheds a certain amount of light over all. We are not in complete darkness. The moon also speaks of cycles and seasons. The old one on the deathbed seems to be reviewing important memories of his life, seeing the connections and relationships as the winter of his life is coming to a close. The green has the connotation of life and growth.

This is a shortened version. Any of these possible interpretations could be taken to whole other levels of understanding, but I'll leave that for those willing to go there.

I value your comments. Please feel free to comment below on what you see in this work or email me at susanfree@yahoo.com and put 'Re: creative living' in the subject line.

For the sake of pleasing my patient husband who is concerned with commerce, you can order prints, etc., of this and other works here.

The following quotes are by Albert Schweitzer.

As soon as a man does not take his existence for granted, but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.

I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.

The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.

A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.

We cannot possibly let ourselves get frozen into regarding everyone we do not know as an absolute stranger.

Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.

Interpreting Art

I recently had a friend remark to me that good art doesn't require an explanation. In many cases I'm sure that's true. However, some people like to know the back story of an art piece, myself being one of those. What draws a person to a particular work of art? Or repels them for that matter? It's all about perception and interpretation.

The truth is that we interpret everything through our own experiences and beliefs, applying our understanding and perceptions of life to the situations we encounter. What one person perceives as positive, another will perceive as negative.

At my recent exhibit I was amazed at the interpretations that people had for certain pictures. Sometimes, their interpretation synced with mine, but mostly it didn't. I was fascinated by what others were seeing. A couple of friends of mine hadn't seen the piece, "The Soul Becomes Dyed." The tortured look of the guy on the left was too "real" for them and they were unable to look at the picture for long. Both of them are veterans of the war in Iraq, one of them seriously wounded in a landmine explosion. Their perception of the tortured face in the painting affected them in ways far outside my realm of experience. They were unable to hear the "message" of the quote because of their perception of that face. It saddened my heart as I gained greater insight into some of the trauma they had experienced at a very young age.

The Soul Becomes Dyed, Mixed Media Collage, 20" x 25.75"

Several people had reacted with tears to another piece on vulnerability, that touched them on some very deep level. Yet another young woman was wanting to know the Biblical basis for a collage on the cycle of life, talking to me for a good twenty minutes, trying to ascertain the "message," the exact Biblical quotes I had been thinking of, and fit it into her religious belief system. She was assigning a depth into the picture that was not consciously in my mind when I made that piece. I often look at a completed piece and see all kinds of things in the picture that I had not intentionally considered. While I often have a quote in mind when working, or am trying to make sense of something in my own life, my intuitive side frequently comes shining through in my artwork with amazing regularity and depth.

Art is therapy for me. It's how I process life's mental and emotional ups and downs. In the case of the tortured guy I was having a rough day, so I grabbed a piece of charcoal and started putting all that emotional energy onto the paper as a way of releasing it. I didn't want to leave myself empty at that point, so I found a picture of a guy laughing and drew him as well. This happened back in the early 90s and I've hung on to these two drawings for years. They finally ended up in this collage with the quote by Marcus Aurelius, "The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts." That quote is the essence of the lesson I had been learning.

I had come to understand that emotions are the color in life, not the purpose. I had been struggling for years to get my emotions under some kind of control that didn't embarrass me on a regular basis. In that struggle I went through a period where it seemed I felt little emotion at all. The world was black and white and I wasn't liking that at all when it came to living a daily life. As I pursued greater understanding I discovered what I believe to be the purpose of emotions, which is, to bring color to life, and it is attached to our thought life. Emotion gives meaning to life, enabling us to "feel", to participate in life in a much greater depth than would be possible without it.

However, it is so easy to let emotions run amok and cause all kinds of damage in one's life. We rarely seem to understand the connection between our thoughts and our emotions. Most think that emotions come before thoughts when in fact it is the other way around. Like a light almost instantaneously following the flipping of the switch, emotions follow the course of our thoughts. It is no easy matter to separate the two. It requires a lot of work and energy to "split that atom," not to mention great courage to dig that deep into our own psyche. The pain of that process can be, and often is, very intense. We hate being uncomfortable in that way.

The Soul Becomes Dyed was for me a beginning realization of all this stuff, just as "heavy" to me as the pain of the realness of the tortured face was to my friends, just in a different way. But where their interpretation took on a negative effect, my overall perception of this artwork is actually positive. It reminds me to monitor my thoughts and emotions, remembering the connection between positive thoughts and positive emotions, and vice versa. It reminds me that I can control my thought life when I choose to do so. It also reminds me that my happiness comes from within, not without. It is a state of mind engendered by my thoughts and colored by my emotions. It's all about individual perceptions determining the interpretation.

Please feel free to share your perceptions and interpretation in the comments below.

Coming Out of the Closet of Fear

Coming Out, Mixed Media, 10.875" x 13.75"

I ran across a video on YouTube the other day of Ash Beckham speaking at a TED talk in Boulder, CO, that inspired the artwork for this week's blog.

Ash said this:

I'm going to talk to you tonight about coming out of the closet. And not in the traditional sense, not the gay closet. I think we all have closets. Your closet may be telling someone you love her for the first time. Or telling someone that your pregnant. Or telling someone you have cancer. Or any other of the hard conversations we have throughout our lives. All a closet is is a hard conversation. Although our topics may vary tremendously, the experience of being in and coming out of the closet is universal. It is scary and we hate it and it needs to be done. 

 

 My interpretation of that talk is that all closets of the mind are closets of fear. In my mind's eye I saw a closet with a partially open door and someone peeking out of the darkness, building up the courage to step out--a profound and difficult place to be in any hard situation.

I believe we all need to give ourselves a well-deserved pat on the back for every time we open the closet door in our mind, stepping out in an act of vulnerability and brave courageousness. We are brave. We are courageous. And we need to recognize that about ourselves.

Fable of the Blue Horse

Imagination, Mixed Media Collage on canvas board, 22" x 28", by Susan K. Leslie

The Fable:

The fourteen year old child stood looking at the painting she had just completed. Painted on black velvet was a magnificent horse standing on a rocky point silently surveying his world, a guardian at large. Everything looked blue in the light of a large moon hanging brightly in the sky above. How she longed to be there with him, imagining the feel of the cool night air, the softness of his coat, the acceptance and safety of a loving friendship between horse and human. The longing was almost unbearable in its sweetness.

I must take this to father, she thought. He loves horses, too. She grabbed up the painting and ran to find her father. She found him sitting in his favorite chair and she proudly displayed her painting to him. Will he like it she asked herself. Oh, I hope he likes it! He must for it is beautiful, achingly so.

"What do you think, Dad?" She eagerly looked at her father's face, waiting in rapt anticipation of his approval. He looked at the painting and slowly turned his eyes to her hopeful face.

Gently, he said, "There's no such thing as a blue horse," crushing her hopes and dreams in one fell swoop from which it took that child forty years to recover.

The moral of this story: The words we speak matter way into the future. Be careful with your words.

Go Ahead! Make My Day!

11x14, Mixed media collage

Some days just feel like that. I needed the humor the day I made this picture. I had been watching a video by Shannon Green and decided to experiment. I've found so many fun and wonderful techniques on YouTube and have ended up with many of my pieces through experimenting with different techniques.

I cruised through the internet and my magazine stash looking for people parts. I loved the face and headdress of the woman and those awesome muscular arms. Her body is cut out of an old book page, the top of the dress is a result of another experiment in making backgrounds, and the bottom is scraps from another project. At the time I had just bought an older model Cricut machine on Craig's List and so the type was the result of playing with it. I used the cutout type along with the negative image, and stenciled "hamburger". You can tell I'm a Clint Eastwood fan even though I tweaked the quote. The background was layers of paint, stamping, gesso and alcohol inks.

This print is available on Fine Art America in a variety of forms and sizes.


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Life Long Dreams Can Come True Even After 40 Years

Art Consoles, 8 x 10, mixed media collage
"Art is to console those who are broken by life." - Vincent van Gogh

My first ever real gallery exhibit is up and running through the month of October! I've dreamed of this for years. The opening reception last night was wonderful and so encouraging, a real confidence booster. The support from my family and friends was everything I could ask for, not only at the opening, but also in the preparation for the show and the kind words of encouragement from them and my facebook community. Thank you all so much! I appreciated it more than words can say.

The pictures are posted on my facebook page. I will be doing a series of posts over the next month or two on many of the pictures in the exhibit that include the stories and lessons the pictures are meant to convey as well as the process leading up to the show.

I hung the following explanation of my art exhibit and include it here to explain the underlying theme of pretty much all of my art. I love that my husband calls it "art that talks," and would have made that the title of this exhibit if he had said it before I sent the info off for advertising. Oh well, "Soul Gazing" also works.

Soul Gazing

 With her art education, graphic design background, and her passionate love of quotes, Susan K. Leslie builds mixed media collages that are expressive of her life journey, documenting powerful insights gained along the way. Early exposure to artists such as Kathe Kollwitz, Georges Roualt, Edward Munch, and others invoked in Susan emotional reactions, enabling her to strongly identify with others, easing her sense of loneliness and isolation, while influencing her desire to help others in a similar manner. Her husband calls it "art that talks".
"Anything and everything is fodder for an art piece. It's not about the tools of line, shape, color, texture, composition, etc. It's about the lesson, the message that is clamouring to get out. I believe every piece of art is the result of a desire to connect with others in a meaningful way. Emotional response is what every "artist" is looking for regardless of the vehicle used, be it fine art, music, writing, dance, crafts, even advertising and graffiti. I see the creative effort as a subconscious attempt to ease one's own loneliness and feelings of disconnectedness, while simultaneously sharing, and hopefully easing that of the viewer. In essence art is therapeutic.

"What really matters is if the viewer "feels" something that causes them to gain understanding, to think, to identify with others, and in that identification, be eased and comforted knowing that they are not alone. There is someone else out there who feels like they do. They can feel related, a part of humanity, important, valid in their existence. They may not be able to put it into words for it is often a subconscious thing, but we all want to matter to someone else.

"My art at its most basic level is meant to say, "I see you. I have gazed upon your soul and identified with you on a deep level. You are not isolated, invisible, nor unimportant. You matter. I feel with you. I see you."

Art is wonderful therapy. "I usually have a general idea when starting a piece, but it quickly takes on a life of its own, telling me what images to include, what colors to use, what technique will work best. I just jump into the flow and ride the wave. When I step back to take a look at the end result, something miraculous has happened. I find meaning that I didn't consciously put into the work. My subconscious takes over in the process and I learn much about myself and life after the work is done. I love that part.

"Soul gazing—observation of self and others—has become a tool, helping me to make sense of life in general and my life in particular. It is how I choose to connect with myself and with humanity, establishing relationships with the world around me and all it contains, while contributing back into my community through my artwork.

"There are whole essays buried in these works, which is actually my next major project—to marry in book form the pictures with the essays from my daily journaling—a contribution to my family and community for posterity."
Framing - I ended up making the frames for all the larger pieces. Not having done this particular task before, I found it had a rather steep learning curve and was highly frustrating at times. The end product turned out far from perfect. However, I will let you read the following bit on framing to get the whole picture.

Philosophy of Framing - Adapt and Adjust

 Framing my own art turned out to be a monumental task, for which I am actually grateful. I struggled with wanting to put out perfect frames. We all like to put our best foot forward in order that others may see the best side of us. In the process I realized that perfect frames obviously weren't going to happen with the time, money, help, materials, and tools I had to work with at the time, not to mention my lack of experience.

I realized I could give in to depression and stress about the situation, or I could choose to accept the analogy to life in general and go with it. I chose to intentionally incorporate imperfections into the frames, even though there is great personal risk involved that viewers would not get the "message." To me that is an unacceptable reason for refusing to take such a risk, however vulnerable it would leave me to the possible criticism and judgment of others.

When I look at this body of work as a whole, imperfect framing provides an underpinning for the overall message of the show, bringing it together in an amazing way. The decision to use these imperfections to intentionally accentuate and drive home the connection that exists within this body of art provides an example of adapting and adjusting, which I see as cornerstones of the artistic process as well as the problem-solving skills needed to live life. That is a big part of what "soul gazing" is all about to me. With that said, these are some things I learned or was reminded of through this framing process:
1) Life itself is never perfect, even though we all experience perfect moments here and there.
2) You have to work with whatever is available to you at the moment.
3) Dreams rarely turn out the way you think they will. This is often a good thing.
4) It's important to learn how to accept less than perfection, while doing the best that you can in that moment.
5) Lessons are everywhere, if one will dare to look below the surface to find hidden truths.
6) Have the courage to go with the flow and not worry about what others will think of you.
7) Everything is okay. Life is filled with trial and error. It's often necessary to "patch" things, while recognizing that some patches work better than others.
8) It's okay to allow others to see you as less than perfect. They know it anyway.
9) Accepting life's imperfections does not mean you are not doing your best, nor is it an excuse for not trying to do your best.
10) Imperfections are the norm in life. Acceptance allows learning and growth in understanding while building character and strength that enables you to withstand the inevitable storms of life everyone experiences.
11) Like everything else in life, art and framing are not really exact sciences, but rather, are indicative of the fluidness of life; and a reminder that balance is not a static thing, but something we must constantly work at on an individual level.
12) Whenever you try something new and you give it your best shot, be proud of yourself! You did it! Next time will be better.
13) Accepting and embracing imperfection makes room for joy in being you, allowing that joy to spill over to others, and what's not to love about enjoying life and sharing it with others?
Would love your comments below.

Mundane Entertainment: Harriet The Tear Duct Slug

Too totally funny!!! Shannon is a scream! I recommend her blog and you can find her on facebook and YouTube.

Mundane Entertainment: Harriet The Tear Duct Slug: I have a really disgusting story to share. Common sense tells me to never ever speak of it to anyone. But I decided to share it on the off c...