Why I Love Making Art

“Paying Attention Is My Superpower”

Over ten years ago, I came back to art-making as an adult. I started painting because of hypothetical projects I had in mind (picture books for my girls, landscape designs, etc.) but as I began to paint, something new and unexpected developed. An attentiveness, a new pleasure, a kind of alchemy that the world went through as it passed through my brush. I came to painting as a writer, but soon I began to see the world as a painter, where I was cursed (hahaha!) to walk around thinking “How would one paint that?” every time I saw a new compelling scene. :P

A whole world opened up to me. As if I were a blind man given sight, I had the privilege of seeing things “for the first time” that I had taken for granted my whole life- how color transitions across the sky at sunset, how the mind creates complimentary contrast in the shadows of a tree, light captured by the bare branches of a tree in winter, how ripples bounce and reverberate in a cove, or how the hues of a wave change as the depth of the water shifts. I had a art teacher, Pablo Villacana, who said “Paying attention is my superpower, what’s yours?” I agree! Paying attention is one of the great gifts that art-making has brought to me. My experience seeing the world is literally changed and enhanced every day I live now, because I paint.

But that’s only part of the equation.

“It’s a Relationship and a Dance”- The Meditative Flow

What I find fascinating is that the process of applying one’s vision is what hones that very skill of seeing. To view a scene or a photo and to ponder painting it is one thing, but to actually get down to the business of painting it is altogether something else. I’m sure we’ve all experienced, for example, how difficult it can be to try and mix a color that’s a good match for what we see in front of us. Is that green too cool or does it need to be muted or should I warm it up with an orange? The precision that is sometimes required of color mixing isn’t just an exercise in understanding the mechanics of pigments, but is also a process of comparing and really paying attention to the results, of getting past our preconceptions about how things are supposed to look so that we can really get to the heart of seeing what is in front of us. That kind of vision is born from rolling up our sleeves and doing. I can’t just look at something and understand it. I have to paint it to really see it, to pay attention the way I want to.

Now, sitting down to paint can be difficult. Sometimes I don’t feel like it. I have other concerns, about money or love or politics. Or I don’t think I’m up to it, because I don’t have answers to certain problems with the subject. But once I get going, I sink into the act of paying attention, and everything else slips away. Then I’m in the moment, seeing as clearly as I can, seeing how viscous my paint mixture is, how full my brush, assessing values or hues or edges, considering the balance of shapes, watching the water on my paper, alive and moving, so I can respond to it. As I’ve said elsewhere, “It’s a relationship and a dance.” And I definitely love to dance.

And if from that meditative flow I end up creating something I find beautiful, if I have something to share with others when I’m done, all the better.

Which brings me to the third reason I love making art.

Paintings Are Outward Facing

Writing poetry is, or is for me, a hermetic activity. I had a teacher once who described writing poetry as “a sort of private sickness you can’t escape from”, and I suppose that there was some truth in that. I write to dig deeper into myself, to understand how I thought about things, to record a moment that was private to me. But that also made it very lonely. Comparatively, for me, art-making has always been something of a public affair. And I love that. I love how art, and the love of making art, connects me to others.

Paintings, by their very nature, are something others seem to be able to relate to more directly than the written word. They can critique it if they have the language to do so, or just respond to it emotionally, as they would to a song. They don’t need a reason to feel what they do. A finished painting has always been an outward facing thing for me. After years of sort of creating in a vacuum as a writer, it has been very liberating these last ten years to share the work I make, and to have others share their work with me. The art community has been very open, and I’ve greatly appreciated that. You’re a good group of people that it is my pleasure to be a part of! :D

Share With Us

I would love to hear from you what drives you to make art, and I bet others would find it interesting too. What’s the purpose behind why you do it? I’m sure it’s different for different folks. What do you gain from it? Why do you want to be better at it? If you have a chance, reply in the comments below or send me an email. I’d love to read about it and share it with the community here.

Thanks for reading, everyone, and a Happy New Year!