This is going to be a little different. I have been experimenting a lot lately. Really asking myself every day what it is, that makes my energy moving? What kind of activities brings me the most joy? And what comes easy to me? I feel that I can’t work from the old me, on “how I’am used to do things, template”.
I need to come even deeper into beingness, into the now.The now is the only place, from where we can create something authentic. Something that is not controlled, but is experienced, is lived. Something which is not from the mind, and what we think we have to do, from this very logic place.
I want to feel alive, to feel joy on a daily basis. So I have committed myself to do something that I really want to do, every day.
Besides from drawing, I’am also very much into sculpture. I like to build things, and I like the rawness of the materials. I like to combine the materials in new ways, to use my imagination for what is possible.
It’s kind of the same process as when you are drawing, but you don’t have the limits of the paper size. Also you can play more with diffrent materials.
I have decided to rename this blog, because I do not only want to write about the drawing process, it’s just a nice way to get started. I don’t want you to be stucked in that limitation. I want you to stay open to all possibilities. You can draw, build, knit, make films…..in whatever medium you are most passionate about.
The blog I have renamed from “Drawings from within” to “Free yourself, through the creative process”
I found a new kind of freedom, in arranging different materials, not aiming for a final result, but just to discover all the possibilities. Not trying to make it nice, not trying to make it last. It doesn’t matter if it all just collapses in the next moment.
What’s really interesting is that it also shifts the energy. Lately I have discovered how draining it can be when the energy is stucked. It can be clutter in your home and workspace, it can be old mind sets, old believes, relationships which are out grown. In all areas of your life, the energy can be stucked, and a lot of miracles happens as you begin to move the energy. To look at other possibilities, instead of limitations. To look at what you can do, instead of what you can’t.
A lot of fear based thinking is what hold us back, things we cling to instead of letting it go. Habits that makes us miserable instead of happy.
Try to look for what actions makes your heart sing.
Forget about the use of the action, If other people likes it. If it’s a waste of time. Very often we have this very practical and logical mind set, that the things we do has to pay of. Our logical mind thinks it knows what is the most beneficial. But if your creativity are draining you, if you do it out of duty, or because you think it’s the most reasonable thing to do, you are cutting yourself out. You are holding yourself down. You will not find happiness or joy, only hard work and limitations. Our logical mind loves to look for limitations, and it uses fear to hold you in line. You have to raise above theese old believes, you have to raise above your mind and what you think is possible.
To be an artist you have to be free, you have to connect with your true power and your truth.
If you do art to fit into a system outside of you, it will not be free.
Me, myself are also on this journey, I’am also guilty of putting too much effort into making something I think is art. Something that can fit into a gallery, or something that people might buy. It’s not easy to be free.
But then I ask myself why do I make art? For whom do I make art? What are the whole purpose?
For me it’s about finding this connectedness in the now. This honesty, this playfullness, this place where everything is possible. It’s the whole process of creating and recreating, to bring something into an aliveness, that will never end, but is pure movement. But also about connecting the dots, to write about my experiences in the process, to make sense to it all. I really don’t need to fit into a category.
If you want to find joy in the process, you have to connect with what your heart longs for. If you think about your own creative process. Which stage, makes the most sense to you? What is the most fun? Where do you really feel excited and alive? When do you forget time and space, and it feels like you could go on forever? And where do you feel drained, bored, less playfull. Where do you begin to do things, because you think you have to do those things?
Then ask yourself, is it possible to only do the things you find the most interesting? Is it possible that you don’t have to do all the other things?
For me, I find it sometimes very draining to finish my work, to make it “presentable” for an exhibition, to make it enduring so it doesn’t collapse or breaks the minute you touch it.
Marie J.Engelsvold. “My sculpture process” 2019
I’am not so skilled in this craft of making it nice and enduring. I don’t think it’s funny, and It doesn’t really interest me. Very often we will not be so skilled, in the areas that we doesn’t find interesting. So why struggle with this aspect??
What I find the most interesting and fun thing to do, is allow myself to play around. To play with all the possibilities, and change things around. If I make a sculpture, I think it’s more funny to see how it can change, I don’t want to choose one fixed solution. I want to see all the possibilities, all the diffrent ways I can play with the expression, all the diffrent ways that it can be alive.
When I have decided on a way that I like it to look , and I come into this phase of finishing the whole thing, I literally feels the energy gets heavier, and the whole process around fixing the expression into something tangible, makes it less alive.
Actually, for many years I didn’t like to play so much around, because I got this fear. Fear of loosing control, fear of not knowing the outcome, fear of not having time for this endless experiments without a logical purpose. So now I had to go beyond that fear, to not lisen’t to my inner critic, to allow myself to play. To allow myself to do the things, which is beyond the limitations of my fear.
This is another aspect, very often we make it too hard, we think we have to struggle and put a lot of effort and hours into our creations. We have this old belief, that if we are serious we have to work for hours and hours. There are this saying “If you want to be something, you have to work really hard” We think we have to suffer, to do things that we don’t like, to neglect other areas of our lives because of lack of time. But if you have this mind set, you will be creating out of this mind set, instead of creating from inside of you. If you want to connect with your truth, with who you are, to express form a place where you are not afraid, you can’t create from this fear based mind set. And why do you need to be something?? You are something already, you just have to free yourself from your minds limitations. To set yourself free.
Marie J.Engelsvold. “My sculpture process” 2019
When I was a child my mother always told me, that it was so important to do your duties. “You can’t just do what is fun, you have to think of other people and their needs”. But I was always wondering. Was it really true? Was I evil to do what I wanted? Was I an evil person, to not be doing what other people expected of me? I knew in my heart that there was something wrong with this mind set, that keep you focusing on your duties, what you have to do.
Also this saying “First work, then fun”. The thing is, if you have this mind set, you will never come to the fun part. Because when have you been working enough to deserve having fun?? To deserve doing what you has a passion about??
Also I got this feeling that work couldn’t be fun, because you had to do it the hard way, you had to struggle. I always felt a little guilty, doing things just from the pleasure of doing the activity.
So instead of looking for more struggles, more things that you can’t do, because you haven’t learned it, or don’t have that education….do the things that flow naturally to you. Have fun. Enjoy life.
To allow yourself to have fun. To allow yourself to honor your feelings, and go with your dreams, it is necessary to empower yourself. You have to express what it is you want to do, to make space in your life that honor those activities that will bring you to your highest potential.
Because when you are doing those activities, it will raise your vibration, it will make your heart sing, and you will attract and see all the possibilities to bring more joy and playfullness into your life. More opportunities to do the things that is what brings you joy, what interest you in your deepest ways, what connects all your skills and experiences into your work.
So to empower yourself, you need to not agree with everyone, to please everyone. You don’t go about thinking what the rest of the world are going to think, about you having fun. You just have to allow yourself to do it, you have to say it’s okay for me to do this. I don’t need to know the result, I don’t have to know how to take the next step. I just take this step today, that will lead me to take the next step tomorrow.
So try this exercise:
Ask yourself, and write it down. Try to stay open for what is coming through.
When you are creating, what is the most fun part ?
Do you sometimes feeling the urge about creating something else, but you don’t allow yourself to do it? maybe out of fear, or that you have never tried it before?
What kind of art do you most admire? What medias? What topics?
When you are creating art, do you sometimes do things in a certain way, because you think about how to sell the work?
Do you limit your work, into a kind of product that people recognize as art? Or recognize as something that they can have in their home??
What comes easy to you?
How can I stay open to new possibilities?
Just write it down, and then put it away. More answers will surely come up in days to come. Because the subconscious will work with these questions, and connecting dots.
Hope you could use these tips. Have a lovely day.
I’am sharing this information to you freely, from my own experiences. Hope you can use it in your own process. Any donation, is deeply appreciated. :-)
I’am facilitating a workshop in my studio. Read more here
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Turtorials and tips
- May 15, 2019 How to take your drawings, to the next level. May 15, 2019
- Apr 30, 2019 Be bold, let your light out. Apr 30, 2019
- Apr 6, 2019 How to start your drawing praxis. Apr 6, 2019
- Mar 8, 2019 What to do when you are stucked in the creative process?? Mar 8, 2019
- Feb 13, 2018 How do you work with composition? Feb 13, 2018
- Jan 8, 2018 Make a kickstart. Jan 8, 2018
- Nov 20, 2017 Go bigger. Nov 20, 2017
- Nov 8, 2017 What is your drawings all about? Nov 8, 2017
- Oct 31, 2017 Wait!! Before you throw that drawing in the bin!!!!! Oct 31, 2017
- Oct 12, 2017 Find inspiration everywhere. Oct 12, 2017
- Oct 12, 2017 Experiment with shapes and lines. Oct 12, 2017
- Oct 12, 2017 Want to find your own visual language ? Oct 12, 2017
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psycological aspects
- May 26, 2020 Holding your flow. May 26, 2020
- May 6, 2020 The world is yours. May 6, 2020
- Apr 22, 2020 Let your heart decide. Apr 22, 2020
- Apr 18, 2020 Create from your self. Apr 18, 2020
- Apr 4, 2020 Expand your own signature. Apr 4, 2020
- Oct 9, 2019 How to shift out of the 3d perspective. Oct 9, 2019
- Sep 20, 2019 What is it, to be grounded? Sep 20, 2019
- Sep 10, 2019 How to follow your own flow. Sep 10, 2019
- Jul 28, 2019 Releasing your resistance to the moment. Jul 28, 2019
- Jul 15, 2019 Don't wait for life to be perfect, let go of control. Jul 15, 2019
- Jun 1, 2019 How to raise your vibration, through the creative process. Jun 1, 2019
- Apr 1, 2019 How embracing all parts of you, will help you in your art making. Apr 1, 2019
- Feb 20, 2019 Don’t resist the moment. Live your dream. Feb 20, 2019
- Feb 10, 2019 Why are we so hard on ourselves? Feb 10, 2019
- Feb 1, 2019 It's okay to say NO. Feb 1, 2019
- Jan 2, 2019 Let yourself shine in 2019 :-) Jan 2, 2019
- Nov 22, 2018 Look at your obstacles as adventures. Nov 22, 2018
- Feb 2, 2018 How to stay in the process? Feb 2, 2018
- Dec 20, 2017 Slow down Dec 20, 2017
- Dec 12, 2017 There is no "right" way. Dec 12, 2017
- Dec 5, 2017 Why it's important to unlearn. Dec 5, 2017
- Oct 12, 2017 Let your feelings be your guide. Oct 12, 2017
- Sep 5, 2017 Don't be afraid of change:-) Sep 5, 2017
- Sep 5, 2017 Express your feelings Sep 5, 2017
- Sep 5, 2017 Can drawing be a kind of meditation? Sep 5, 2017
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turtorials
- Apr 6, 2019 How to start your drawing praxis. Apr 6, 2019
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video
- May 15, 2019 How to take your drawings, to the next level. May 15, 2019
- Apr 30, 2019 Be bold, let your light out. Apr 30, 2019
- Apr 1, 2019 How embracing all parts of you, will help you in your art making. Apr 1, 2019
- Mar 8, 2019 What to do when you are stucked in the creative process?? Mar 8, 2019
- Feb 20, 2019 Don’t resist the moment. Live your dream. Feb 20, 2019
- Feb 10, 2019 Why are we so hard on ourselves? Feb 10, 2019
- Feb 1, 2019 It's okay to say NO. Feb 1, 2019
