‘Every Emotion is of Equal Value’ – A Revelation!

by Francesca Howard
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Following the thrill of painting new beliefs with ‘The Grief and the Victory of not being Seen’, I am now working on a new painting entitled ‘Every Emotion is of Equal Value’. This is also something I learned while undergoing therapy a year ago.

And it blew my mind! To use a distinctly 60s phrase. It really did! I found it paradigm shifting.

To think that feeling envy could be of equal value to feeling joy, pointlessness of equal value to exuberance, desperation of equal value to gratitude.

I had to see if I could express it in paint.

‘Every Emotion is of Equal Value’, oil and leaf on canvas, 80 x 100cm, first draft

It has taken a lot of working out. Firstly, the emotions I was going to paint – an equal number of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’. Then what colours the emotions were going to be and how they would balance visually on the canvas. This is the first draft of the painting. There will be a few more and I will keep you posted on my progress.

In the meantime, should this be a new concept for you as it was for me, take a little time to consider it. It might be life changing for you too.

34 Comments

  1. Interesting concept. And it’s interesting to see you working with a grid when your previous paintings have been so fluid. I wonder how that experience is for you? It must be fascinating just working out how to balance all those different elements, especially as each of those ’tiles’ would make wonderful individual paintings, too. Looking at that draft, my eye is drawn to the reds first and then I think: ooh, green! And then the quieter, softer colours… Which is a good way of showing how the emotions each have force, and equal value! Brava, maestra!

    Like

  2. Thank you so much! You know me so well – it is a very different way of working for me. And as with a lot of creativity, you can plan as much as you like but then it takes its own form on the canvas.
    I love that you view each ‘tile’, as you so beautifully put it, as a painting in itself. That was the intention. I have a way to go and new realisations keep bobbing up to the surface …

    Liked by 1 person

  7. It is an interesting thought and not really one I’ve had before – I see value in negative experiences in our lives to help us grow, but no, I’d never really thought of emotions having equal value, I guess because we value the more comfortable ones! The painting is beautiful – I suspect that on different days at different times you would be drawn to different tiles, which perhaps proves the point!

    Liked by 1 person

  8. I absolutely agree about negative experiences, Andrea. I used to say to the children when they were young, if we don’t make mistakes we don’t make anything. I also think that rejection can often be the greatest gift. But this idea is worth mulling over – particularly when you next have a ‘negative’ emotion. For me it has given validity and a certain amount of honour to that emotion as opposed to, as you say, wanting to run from it.

    And thank you for the lovely words about the painting!

    Liked by 1 person

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