The Creative Spirit

colonial girl   watercolor sketch 6x6" by Meera Rao 

"Creativity entails taking appropriate risks, and courage allows you to use your intuition and will."

From the book "The Creative Spirit"  by Goleman, Kaufman and Ray 

In the past few days I had the opportunity to see  Warhol Out West  showcasing Andy Warhol's 60 of the iconic pop art paintings & photographs and 'Working South: Mary Whyte' - huge breathtaking watercolors capturing the essence of people in vanishing or dramatically changing industries in the south.  Both give brilliant insight into the culture and life in the US but in very different ways!  Andy Warhol's paintings showed audacity while Mary Whyte's paintings are laced with sensitivity.  Needless to say I was very impressed with both.  

Both the shows have made me think about creativity, genius, talent, passion, discipline, and of course in my case- fear and anxiety! In reading about their lives and looking at their art it became obvious to me that both had faith in their creativity, listened to their own voices, had acute awareness of their environment, and asked some powerful questions.       

Mary Whyte wrote in her book "An Artist's way of Seeing" :  You must know where 'you' begin, what it is that your heart is responding to. In knowing yourself, then you will know what it is you really want to paint, or sing, or plant, or write. With this self awareness comes the confidence to trust your creative intuition. And when you finally know what it is you want to express, say it loud and with perfect clarity, with every ounce of your being, so the whole world will hear. Not everyone will appreciate or understand your message, but it won't matter.  You will have made use of your talent, and you will have said what it is you wanted to say.

At any age, your ultimate creation is what you make of yourself........And what you make of yourself will be manifested in everything you express. Just remember, everyone is wired to do one thing really well. The difficult part is discovering what ii is. Harder still is believing you can do it. Fear and lack of confidence keep many artists from even trying." 

I think life and art in the end is all about having the courage, the audacity, faith and passion!