Inspiration Fridays! It’s Ok To Struggle

It’s Ok To Struggle

I hit the freeway inspired and leaned in on the gas. I passed by cars and semi trucks as if they were rocks in the Umpqua river. I was the water.

“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Almost an hour early at the local restaurant, market, and lounge, I waited for my friends on a dark stool with a beer, a microwaved chicken sandwich, and wilted fries.

Then we were twisting through the unfamiliar. Left turns and gravel toward a destination that maps have a hard time pinpointing. Our unflinching navigator ordered a U-turn. We whirled and pressed on until we reached the end of an unnamed logging road, parked the Sienna, loaded on our packs, and pulled on our rubber-faced gloves.

Even the ferns had thorns on the way down. The earth fell out from under us and we grabbed at everything that would slow our fall. The trail threatened to disappear. It became an impenetrable wall of welts and bruises only to re-emerge as a waterfall of mud. The map was reviewed, the compass appraised, and we continued our descent.

And then we were there. Surrounded by an amphitheater of rock faces and waterfalls. The sky above was a radiant blue island of light framed by the blackness of the forest. The holes in the flat rocks just beneath the surface of the river looked like a gigantic beehive. Deep pools invited us to swim.

 

8paint Inspiration Fridays It’s Ok To Struggle - Jump In!

Sometimes the only way to get through is to jump in.

We lit our fire with a tea-candle and driftwood wedged between prehistoric boulders. Our tarps stretched taught between the limbs of trees and large rocks.

They call it the Devils Staircase because once you get to the bottom, you have the distinct feeling that it might be impossible to climb back up. And that’s ok. It’s one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

It reminds me of the process of painting a painting. The furious beginnings and excitement that allow us to continue. That ineffable spark that goads us forward. And then we are lost. Descending into the unknown. We double back and check our course. It gets hard. And ugly. Sometimes it’s even painful. There are times when we couldn’t stop if we wanted to. The momentum of the artwork has taken over. Beauty is inevitable.

Do you allow yourself to get lost in your art?

If and when you get lost how do you find your way out?

Do you want your art to be easy?

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Inspiration Fridays! Stay on the Line

Stay on the Line

Community keeps us accountable to our creativity. We don’t get answers from a one sided conversation.

“It may be that the deep necessity of art is the examination of self-deception.” – Robert Motherwell

Do you know what I miss about land lines? I miss the cord. When I lifted up the phone to make a call or answer one, there was no where left to go. With the receiver tucked between my ear and shoulder I’d relax into that asymmetrical posture, reserved only for conversation. There was almost always a notepad near the phone, or at least some typed on bits of paper. While talking, our words would inevitably inspire or bore me, and I would begin to draw. Freeform doodles in the margins of utility bills or abstracted designs on sticky notes. Sometimes even tiny masterpieces would emerge in ballpoint pen over the surface of yellow lined notebook paper.

Have you ever been on the phone with someone who is content to have a conversation without you? We can stand there attentive with the phone to our ear, or set it down on the table and walk away to make a sandwich. When we come back, we will hear that same jocular monologue unaffected by our wordless absence.

In many ways, My easel in the studio is very much like that landline. There is nowhere to go. I stand there, tethered to an invitation to create. Just me, the canvas, and a conversation with the infinite. That conversation can sustain me for long periods of time. But then, one day, it doesn’t.

 

Inspiration Fridays - Stay On the Line - Gabriel Mark Lipper - Acrylic On Panel - 36x72

Infinity – 36″x72″ – acrylic on panel – On display at the Grant Pass Museum of Art through July 28th

As much as I relish my artistic connection to the infinite, I’ve learned that I need to check in regularly to make sure that the line hasn’t gone dead. Art is connection. Without it, we begin to repeat ourselves. We are no longer having a conversation. We are limited by the comfort of our own ideas and end up regurgitating the familiar. This leads to bad repetitive art. Echo chamber art.

The Learning To See community has changed the trajectory of my work. Last Friday was our final live call and I’ve been reflecting on what this community means to me. The deep learning that’s taking place throughout the course, the hard questions that I’ve been asked, and the myriad of different artistic perspectives, changes the way that I think. It changes the way that I see.  I have seen more growth in my art over the last three years than the ten years prior. And it appears to be across-the-board. My teammates and students are winning awards, selling work, and continually pushing the envelope of creativity. It feels like a renaissance.

What has changed is the connection. There is a cord that now connects me to a bigger world, full of amazing ideas and wonderful artists. It pushes me to grow and be better. It pulls me out of my ruts and into the game and it keeps me on the line.

How is the conversation with your art going?

Do you tend to spend more time talking or listening?

 Does your Art bring you connection?

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Inspiration Fridays! Art Anxiety

Art Anxiety

I started off this morning in a foul mood. This may have been due in part to the fact that it was 2:30 AM, but waking in a panic is never particularly fun.

“Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions — not outside” – Marcus Aurelius

I keep a lot of plates spinning in the air. To-do lists and calendars help, but I still can end up wrestling a busy mind at the end of the day. Anxious overload can get the best of me if I don’t keep it in check.

This is where my love of painting probably was born. Painting for me, is a meditation. Everything falls away. I’m left only with the decisions in front of me… Should this shape be larger or smaller? Would it help if that part were lighter? What if I neutralized some of that red and let just a little bit of the pure saturated color coming through?

There is another, deeper level of dialogue, moving through the paintings as well. Sure, painting can be difficult, even painful sometimes. It’s not easy. But it’s also not dangerous, and if our paintings go awry, no one’s going to get hurt. Our art affords us a safe place to land. To experiment with ideas like risk, failure, and discovery. Our art urges us forward. Peeling back the vail to check in with unexplored parts of ourselves that we may not have had access to. We are creating a vibrant space to practice being our best and worst selves. A place to discover who we are, and that we are safe.

 

8paint Inspiration Friday Art Anxiety

Me showing where I go to practice life.

Afraid? Nervous? Anxious? Painting may not solve it for you, but the reality of our everyday will show up in our paintings. It teaches is to see ourselves more clearly. All of ourselves. Our art provides an incredible training ground for life. It loads us up with failure after failure and fuels us with success after success. Overtime, this practice of painting can teach us to be brave. Every painting has an ugly stage. After a while, you begin to recognize them for what they are and they aren’t so devastating. Eventually, you learn that those are the moments to keep moving forward. To keep painting.

In life as an art, it’s easy to fool ourselves into thinking we aren’t good enough or that we don’t have what it takes to get through some of these ugly stages. But we do have what it takes. We just need to keep painting.

What has art taught you about yourself?

Has art made you braver?

Does Art bring you peace?

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