In recent months life has been showing me in glowing terms the benefit of letting my art go. It is a large part of the artist’s life learning to let their art go. In the early days of being an artist it proved difficult to even share my art, never mind let it go. The thought that anyone would see it, that it would be out there for everyone to judge, was terrifying. But as I developed as an artist, so developed the need for my art to be seen and the confidence to put myself at risk of judgement.
But the stage I have reached recently is one move on from that. Allowing my art to take on a new and altered existence in the vision of another. This has definitely been true of The Colour Potential Cards where my cards have been used by card readers in Canada, the US and Romania and have been interpreted in ways I could never have foreseen.
The next developments stemmed from my exhibition in December at the Horsebridge in Whitstable. There were two paintings that got people talking above any others. They were ‘The Grief and the Victory of not being Seen’ and ‘Every Emotion is of Equal Value’, both of which stemmed from therapy I had undergone.
The first transformation was of ‘The Grief and the Victory of not being Seen’. I was commissioned to paint a tall thin version for a house that was already jammed packed with art. It is a beautiful modern house owned by passionate art collectors with very little space left for a commission. But they spotted a space between a cupboard and a door and commissioned a version to fit that space using colours that matched the Old Tabriz rug that lay below. Here is the result:
The next thing that happened is that a punk musician asked if he could use ‘Hate’ from ‘Every Emotion is of Equal Value’ as the cover for his next album. Well, of course I said Yes!
And so now a detail of one of my paintings is the album cover for ‘Sick of Death’ by the fantastic Mr Wu’s Pigs.
What this has taught me is that if I let my art go it will transform into visions I could never have imagined. It has been a wild ride!
I think that’s so much part of the process, when we hold everything so close at first, almost as though we don’t believe we’ve finished it, and then gradually learn to let it go, and allow others to do what it inspires in them. Opposite ends of the same spectrum, I think, but a lovely place to be. Congratulations on seeding such flowers!
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Thank you, Lovely! And as a writer you must have got used to your art being changed very early on with all that editing lark 🖋💙
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It must be particularly hard to let a painting go when it is one of a kind, but also to let things go that have come from a deep place inside. But how wonderful to be able to let aspects of these pieces go in unexpected directions!
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Absolutely, Andrea, you are so wise. The rewards, however are great. Do you experience the same or similar with your writing?
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I don’t think I do – but I think the difference is that my writing can be reproduced, so although I send it out into the world, I still have the ‘original’!
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Very good point!
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