How much do you allow your art to lead?

Today I wanted to write about something I don’t have answers for. Just a lot more questions.

“The future must enter you long before it happens.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

I draw in inspiration and spit out paintings. A lot of my paintings have been aspirational in that way. Something amazing slaps me upside the head as beautiful and I try to make a painting out of It. A dark canal in Venice, a bar scene in Portland, a naked woman or landscape, a bull rider or yacht sailing on the Caribbean.

My older paintings smacked with a bit of cynicism. “They“ were over there. I was over here. My paintings reflected a feeling of impossible separation from a world that I admired. But what I’ve begun to notice, as my life moves forward, is a surprising connection. The world that I’ve been painting is becoming the world that I live in. The muse is leading me where I want to go.

“Infinity” – 36″ x 72″- Acrylic on panel – Gabriel Mark Lipper

Today, as I hung up some of my paintings in our new home, I realized how much they were a reflection of my surroundings. But when I painted them, I had no idea that this is where I would end up.

Painting is a meditation, a searching out. Half of our choices if not more are subconscious. Even what we paint surprises us sometimes. In this way, the energy of the paintings is bigger than we are. We learn from them, and if we are open to it, they may even lead us toward our future.

Have you ever had an experience with your art like this?

Can Art be predictive?

How much do you allow your art to lead?