Intuition is the Internal Compass
Journal Entry: Saturday, April 20, 2024
At a certain point in one’s process as an artist there is the feeling that we need to get our work out in the public, to have it seen, to be published or exhibited. If one desires to be a self-sustaining professional this will eventually become an important consideration. However, as artists the first order of business is to make the commitment to ourselves that being a creative is our central focus and that we are willing to pursue our path and develop the self-discipline to continue forward regardless of circumstances. It is a lifelong endeavor.
As artists, though we might wish for it, we don’t need external validation from others. It cannot be depended on as a fuel to sustain us. But we do need the ability to triangulate. We need orientation; to locate where we are, what direction we are going in and determine our trajectory. In this regard we, as a community, are in continuous conversation among ourselves through our works and the works of our predecessors.
The embedded lessons and wisdom found in this trans-temporal conversation among creatives helps to provide us with orientation and the inspirational fuel we need to confidently move forward through our questioning and exploration of what has thus far been proposed. It is up to us to study, learn and contemplate where humanity has been and toward what it is moving and find our place in the caravan.
Ultimately artists need to orient themselves according to their own internal compass and this is discovered through understanding one’s interests and one’s own intuitive sense of rightness. Our intuitive sense of things is subtle and beyond our normal logic and thinking processes built on limited beliefs and subliminal biases.
The opening of this intuitive sense is an internal, meditative practice based on clearing the mind of chatter and distraction in order to peer into the inner depths. That is where our compass is. With it we will always find our way.
I am going through yet another "what's the point of making art" periods. I struggle with a process which includes wanting to show work and have people take an interest. Even friends don't show a lot of interest, which is hard when art is so central to how I see myself. I have very few showing opportunities, no spaces to hire even in a wide area. Open calls are a bit of a nightmare, just galleries wanting to make money. It will be hard to excise the wanting to show part out of my process but feel this can be the only way forward. An alternative practice focused on self expression and fulfillment alone, and I would be tempted to throw away or recycle anything I make.
More about this. I like the topic and your approach.