As I’m getting ready for the next Art2Life workshop in Mallorca, I’ve had the pleasure of being able to ride my bike around a bit. I haven’t been riding with any kind of plan, and have just been going from one place to the next, enjoying things as they come along.
It strikes me that there is a parallel between riding your bike this way and art making, about the importance of being in the present and not dwelling on what’s next.
Watch the video and let me know what you think – when you are making art, do you find yourself in the moment, or somewhere else?
In gratitude, Nicholas
17 Comments
Hi! I’m
Nicholas Wilton
the founder of Art2Life.
With over 20 years experience as a working artist and educator, I’ve developed a systematic approach that brings authenticity, spontaneity and joy back into the creative process.
Join me and artists from all over the world in our Free Art2Life Artists Facebook Group or learn more here about Art2Life.
Nicholas, how splendid to cruise along vicariously with you as you bike tour in Mallorca! Thank you so much, as always, for sharing your perspectives this way
I agree totally about the allure, power and joys of studio practice when we allow ourselves the path of exploration. I trained as a print maker in Mexico decades ago and learned back then that even in a medium as seemingly unforgiving as stone & zinc, it was much more magical and engaging to start with a basic & simple structure and then to invite & allow intuition and being in the moment to guide the process.
Thank you for being such an inspirational artist, teacher and person, Nicholas. I appreciate you so much!
I have never made the opportunity to explore print making with stone and zinc– this sounds fabulous…thanks for your comment…
Having just finished a solo show cycle which involved 9 months of intense outcome-focused work, I am really looking forward to seeing what comes next without having a deadline… so I guess I ebb and flow in that regard. There is part of me that worries if I don’t have a destination in mind I’ll never get anywhere! But it sounds so resonant to me, very appealing not to be fixated on the outcome. Part of the exhale, to misquote Amanda Palmer.
Ye sof course–we have these big deadlines–me too. I think it is a blend–if we were always wandering it might be too much– moderation I think
Thank you for the reminder! Just now I have been painting little 8×8 (15 of tem), but I paint them as 1 big painting.
Last night I was wrecking my brain how I ciuld make the so wonderful, that people will buy them.
I want to force it by visualizing and planning it out. It totally takes the fun out of it!
Today I will let it unfold! Thank you for sharing your thoughts💕
Lena– hi! post what it looks like here so I cna see it…curious–sounds cool-how do 15 make a big rectangle?
First of all, I love these travel logs. They are just so inspirational. Second, I am the poster child for working and seeing where it goes. I’ve often thought I should be more deliberate but it doesn’t work for me. Thanks for the acknowledgment of working and living in the moment. Keep these videos coming.
Great. Video. It’s so amazing the clarity, steady hand. Continuity. I always wondered what teachers do between workshops!
So great Nicholas! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and your bike ride! I can totally see how the journey is the point! Enjoying the ride without a big plan is a perfect analogy!
It is hugely challenging to stay in the present when survival seems to depend on planning for a future outcome that ensures it. I agree that focusing on outcome detracts from being able to be participate fully in the creative process. Letting go, freefalling in a moment of creativity is scarier than anything I know.
I am not at all devoted to the idea of expectation of a particular outcome. however, i am particularly fond of beginner mind. when i push paint around i engage with the process and wonder ‘what will happen if…?’ i realize it’s a luxury for me to enjoy this way of being – i’m an amateur in life and push paint around, like everything else i do, because i love the process. i enjoy life best when i can open and give myself up to the moment for the love of that moment. and Nicholas, i am very impressed with your breathing while peddling a bicycle with one hand, holding the phone with the other. Skills.
You show with your example how to embrace every aspect of life, because you believe in transformation. It is a gift to spend time with your generous being here at the Mallorca workshop. We are having a very good time: all we need to grow and to rejoice. Thank you beyond words. The practise of artmaking is a way of becoming ourselves. That what the quote of the day!
thanks for such a nice comment–I derive so much inspiration from this community-it is a gift.
Hello Nicholas, your words are especially poignant for me. Yesterday I finished a two day workshop with an artist I truly admire. I’ve been wandering for several years now, but always searching for the path to take me to the next level for my art. ..I’ve awoke, and I have ideas and hope for my new direction. …….I’ll still wander, but I think I have parameters that will keep me focused. ……and your blogs have been needed
to keep me feeling connected and less alone. Thanks.
Beautiful area! Love how the late fall season can be so sunny and warm in other countries. And, yes so true about not knowing where our art will take us, or how our art will transform. In these days of social media, I think the part of “just being in the moments” have taken a back seat. Social media can take over our lives and not give us time to think, breathe, be.
Thank you again for sharing your thoughts and perspectives. Whenever I try to plan, it truly doesn’t work. I had to do that in school, of course, but I never want to go back to that structured existence again. Still, being in the moment is a joy and a luxury that I need to put aside when I’m getting serious about trying to get into shows. The work I’m wanting to show, however, is proof of those moments of spontaneity and being in the moment. Often accompanying me is Pink Floyd. Somehow that band gets me to be freer than most others. Thanks again, and have a wonderful time. Well, of course you will. 🙂
It’s such a difficult balance to not be attached to an outcome and yet still steer the boat to fulfill the goals in your work that you want to. I’m actually feeling frustrated lately in my studio because I have all these ideas whirling in my head as well as lists upon lists (poems, pictures for inspirations) and yet when I sit down to work (which as a mom of a 2 and 5 year old, is a scarce opportunity to have) i’m pressured to make something great, to fullfill the goals in my head, and I’m not getting lost in that once familiar place of creativity and flow. I’m just stuck and my work is suffering for it. I put pressure on my self to get to an outcome in the time alotted that it inhibits the creative flow in the process. How to do I get out of my own way? I would love some ideas.