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Winter has fallen upon our Northern Hemisphere and with it comes the stillness of snow and the sparkle of childhood magic.   The magic of childhood keeps the holidays alive and is the source of all creativity, even in adulthood.   This magic is fostered by the play between the known and the unknown, a place where all children live and where most of us adults avoid.  It is the uncomfortable place we are thrusted when learning a new task, a new job or a new route to work.   During these moments we drop our guard and become more open and accepting of the newness of the moment and its magic.

Expanding the known by moving towards the unknown is where I find myself as I stand before the whiteness of the canvas.  I begin each piece, each creative act with the openness of childhood magic.   For me, that means to begin all my work with no preconceived idea of the end result.   I begin with a quick series of impromptu brush strokes, then bring color and detail into the resulting shapes and images as they appear on the surface.  It is sort of like seeing images appear in the clouds or in the patterns of wallpaper.  The results are dream-like imagery that explore the interconnected oneness of nature and man's place within this oneness.

My primary job as an artist is to listen so the truth of each story can manifest itself allegorically within the work.   Within this deep listening intuition guides with creation of the content.  I then shape this content with an artistic eye for color theory, composition and technique.

Working in this manner, I believe each piece becomes a living manifestation of creativity itself and that each manifestation then begins calling out to its rightful family.   This is part of the magic.   Each work has a unique meaning and connection to a specific person or family.

My commission work starts with the same push into the unknown only now with a focus on a particular person, family or event.   When creating a painting for a specific person I source the life stories of the person, including those of friends and family.   Additionally, I include photos of the location of where the painting will hang and other rooms of the home to get a better feel of the place.

Armed with the specific resource material, I take a breath and begin painting with a series of quick brush strokes then listen for what comes up.   I began painting the images I see, keeping in mind preferred color scheme and the life content.   The content begins to take shape in the dreams of paint, then suddenly turns towards the unknown.   The images and colors spring forth to describe things in life that I am only just learning.  Once, I created a piece as a commission posthumously as a way to show a man's love for his wife where he struggled to do so while he was alive.   Among the unknown images that came up was a geometric cube.   This I found odd, since I rarely include geometric shapes in my work, but I followed the magic.   When I presented this piece to his widow she told me that “cube” was the meaning of the first Chinese character in his name.   He was truly present in spirit as this piece was created through me.

That is how all of my work develops.   A great lesson for listening by taking my thoughts and judgements out of the process so the story can be sung into existence.

This is the nature of my work, things come up that I may not have an understanding of or a relationship to.   This is also the nature of creativity, the source we all feel and describe as the “Holiday Spirit,” the childhood magic.  We can all reach out towards this magic anytime of the year to expand our own known into the unknown to heighten our own creativity.   Try doing something new, anything, and feel what it feels like.   Watch how you move into the not knowing, the openness you employ. 

Now follow this into everyday life and celebrate the magic of your being.