The Art of Inquiry – Scott Picard – Ep 27

So much of our art and creativity comes from the unknown. From the soul. We don’t always know how, or even why, but remarkably it all seems to make sense years later. However, what if there was a way to gain access to your innate wisdom in the present. What if you could  better answer the questions your soul has for you?

Meet Scott Picard. Scott is a human development coach who teaches how to translate and navigate the hidden world of the subconscious. Scott can help decipher our inner wisdom and creativity by addressing our archetypal aspects of fire, earth, water, and air. Turns out, our waking reality is like a tiny iceberg floating at sea. Yet, our subconscious is a much more significant portion of that same iceberg we just can’t make out, as it lays hidden beneath the sea. This is where Scott is taking us today. Join us now, for an unrehearsed session that begins like most journeys: by asking a question and then listening ever so quietly for the answer. 

Listen if you are interested in…

• Let the embodiment begin [2:07] 
• Finding balance between the internal intuitive world and the external controlling one and heading into the unknown [9:45]
• Overcoming fear and examining the human psyche [14:44]
• Owning your experience, chasing fire, and finding intimacy with yourself [18:46]
• Using personal intimacy to navigate art and the world around us [26:27]
• How risk makes better art and exploring vulnerability [34:02]
• Teaching awareness, creating better art, and cultivating growth [41:46]
• Using pain to stoke our creative fires [44:29]
• The gift our awareness gives to the world [48:10]

Listening on your body’s terms

One of the reasons I love Scott’s work is that it’s somatic in nature. His embodiment techniques really get me out of my head and help me focus on what’s really going on within myself. Anyone who works with Scott knows that one of the first things he does is immediately shift you to your feet. The reason he does this is to give us a new entry point into the body. Not just the mind going into the body, but Scott describes it as a way into the body, through the body, on your body’s terms. This helps us unlock the innate intelligence that our body possesses. 

We start by noticing the pressure of the earth beneath our feet and then breathing through them, releasing energy into the earth through the exhale and drawing it into our bodies on the inhale. The earth has its own rhythm and wave and Scott has you imagine that this wave is traveling effortlessly through your body. Once reconnected with ourselves, Scott asks three simple questions for our bodies to respond to: What does it mean to really listen? What does it mean to relate? What does it mean to fully let go of control?

Embracing the push and pull

The world around us can be a pretty demanding place. As an artist, it can feel like we are constantly at war with the expectations of others. I find that when I’m busy, and working, and trying to create something that people will like, and that the gallery wants…all of it can feel like you’re getting crushed by the external controlling world. This is what makes it so difficult sometimes to hear our inner intuition. Not to say that we should be constantly disconnected from the world around us. As I’ve mentioned before, one of our greatest gifts as artists is that we are so sensitive and it’s that connection to the world that keeps our art universal.

But our art also has to be personal. We can’t spend our lives making art for other people’s expectations. Then it would never be our own. As much as we need the external world, much of the artist’s journey is an internal one. And I struggle with that, because relying on internal intuition feels vulnerable. It’s admitting, “My mind doesn’t know what I’m doing right now, so I’m going to trust that my soul does.” It can feel like we are endlessly playing around with different modes of being, trying not to fracture ourselves. But I know that my best work comes from the times when I’ve trusted myself the most, further proving the value of what Scott does. His embodiment work helps me find balance amongst life’s natural push and pull and bring my art to life in a healthy way.

Navigating the unknown

Our bodies are more equipped to navigate the unknown than any other part of ourselves. When Scott said this, it felt like something clicked in my head. So much of our experience as artists can rely on what we are “supposed to know”. Whether it’s things we learned in art school, or from other artists, or even messages about ourselves that we just believe because we’ve never asked better questions. And that’s what it comes down to, right? Asking the right questions to the right people to get the answers we need to do the things we want. 

But have we ever considered that the person we NEED to ask these big questions to is ourselves? What would it look like in our art practices if we started treating our body and our intuition like a person? A person who knows more about us than even we do. Someone who can tell us the exact answers we need if we can only trust ourselves enough. When we engage our bodies and ask ourselves the right questions, we go past our minds and egos, into the unknown. And it’s in the unknown that we find the best version of our art, and ourselves. Listen to this episode for more insights from my conversation with Scott Picard!

Connect with Scott Picard

• To inquire about private sessions and to find out about upcoming workshops from Scott, please go to: www.scottpicard.com  

Connect with Nicholas Wilton

• Nicholas@art2life.com
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