Leaving a trail of creative breadcrumbs

On creative cycles, emerging from fallow times, and the evolution of a painting!

Creativity, I have found, is cyclical. Periods of intense artistic or creative output are often followed by what I call fallow periods. Stretches of time that seemingly last forever, when it feels like your creativity has all but dried up.

Despite knowing that a fallow creative cycle will be followed by fertile and abundant creativity, I almost always work myself up into a panic-ridden anxiety, certain that this time, I’ve lost my creative spark. That this time will mark the end times...my creative muses will never return...my studio will silently gather dust…all my paints will dry up in their tubes…my pencils will crumble into dust…my art journals will be all but abandoned.

But then, as it inevitably does, my creativity returns. Tentative, sometimes, at other times with a sudden whoosh of fresh energy. And I’m back in the studio, flinging paint with gay abandon, finding figures in the layers of paint, and filling up my journals with art and words and love.

Fill your mailbox with art and creativity!

One of the things that I often do when I finally emerge from these fallow times, is to leave myself some breadcrumbs, so that I can find my way back to my creativity. Once, I made myself a deck of creativity-themed cards; another time, I made a booklet of quotes. I’ve made zines, written in my journals, and even recorded a podcast on creative cycles. All in an attempt to remind myself — and you — that the fallow times rarely last forever.

This time, I documented my painting process, and I decided to share it with you!

This little slideshow captures the many layers and stages of my intuitive painting process. This is one of my absolute favorite ways to paint — there’s no planning involved; no expected outcome that I have in mind. I just show up, reach for the paint tubes closest to me, and start to lay down colors and marks and scribbles and textures.

And much like Michelangelo, who believed it was the task of the sculptor to simply discover the statue hidden inside a block of stone, I find that it is my task to discover the figures and faces that lie hidden in the layers of paint and marks.

Share the magic of art with your friends!

Take a closer look at some of the stages of this painting.

It really is this simple — even though it can feel incredibly scary and complicated. After all, all that you need to do is to abandon control, release all expectations, and play. How complicated can that be?

{Very, my friend. Very!}

We start like this: By laying down colors and collage and scribbles.

The first few steps: laying down paint, adding some bits of collage and scribbles

And then we continue to build up the layers.

This includes making bold moves, despite the fear of “messing it up” — yes, that is legit what ran through my mind when I decided to layer on some white paint over the scribbles that you see above…

…adding in more marks and scribbles and collage and paint. All while muttering “don’t mess it up; don’t mess it up” under your breath.

Oh, the irony! It’s all a mess! Until it isn’t. Until finally, the piece starts talking to you…

Finding faces in the layers of paint

And all you need to do is find the painting that is hidden in the layers of paint!

This is a process that requires fearlessness. It is also a process that never fails. You just throw everything and the kitchen sink at it until it works!

See? I told you it was simple!

Have you experienced creative fallow times? What helps you during those periods? How do you move through them? And do you leave yourself creative breadcrumbs? Use the comment section to get the conversation rolling, or just hit reply to this email!