Dissonance and Congruence

Flow, 12 x 14 inches, watercolor

I think that many of us who paint feel like we are called to paint. There is something about the act of painting that pulls us into the life of an artist.

I can still remember the first time I saw an oil painting, and the first time I smelled linseed oil. My brain was pre-wired to accept the sensory aspects of the craft.

The call to paint feels like something that came from outside of me. I just happened to show up and respond to it.  The pre-conditions were already in place. This is part of the very spiritual aspect of being an artist.

Painting, for many of us, is also a very selfish act. I can be all wrapped up in MY technique, painting MY kind of image, feeling so pleased with MY results, soaking up your praise for MY work, while still having disparaging thoughts about YOUR painting.

There is a dissonance between the ego-less nature of the calling to paint, and the ego-filled results of painting.

The drive to produce more or better artwork always comes with a question about why I am doing it.  Am I painting for the sake of painting? Or am I painting for money or admiration or status? Or for some of each? Surely there is some ego in almost everyone’s motivation to paint.

The “artist scene” that younger artists look for and older artists stalk like hungry ghosts is filled with and fueled by ego.

But with all important things in life, ego only takes us so far. Even after an early burst of creativity, we are likely to tire or get bored if we make strokes of paint just to feel strokes to our egos. There has to be something more to the call to paint.

Perhaps the call to paint is the start of the reach for something transcendent. If we can reach for something that conveys the higher aspects of our shared humanity, then we can move beyond ego-clinging and answer the call to make art with something that also comes from outside of ourselves.

That kind of congruency is something to be cherished.