Art Thoughts

To hopefully start off a discussion I would like to add some thoughts that surfaced recently while I read Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now.  These are my own thoughts on this subject and I invite a dialogue!

"All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness." Eckhart Tolle  

I believe this is actually a big part of Art's attraction especially for those who have lived in the work force of using their mind constantly. I see see some artists struggling with imposing that old system (active mind/intellect) onto Art. A difficulty arises because they are incompatible, 2 different systems.  The habitual pattern of "thought" struggles with accepting Art's no-mind as valid. If it is valid, it negates one's previous skills and methods.  One might find oneself abandoned into LOVE/FEAR situation: love/attraction to the stillness of the art mode and FEAR of that no-mind or unknown territory where there is no control but only SURRENDER.

It is our THOUGHT, our EGO which also strives for recognition and ownership of our art. One could question Art's ownership as one could question owning a piece of Nature.  We are a tool.  We put in the 10,000 hours (Malcolm Galdwell's books on success) striving to perfect the precision of the Tool, but the tool alone does not CREATE.  We learn to open/surrender ourselves to the energy that moves through us.

Where do ideas come from?

I see this struggle apparent when artists feel they need to validate their work with the "art speak statements" and it does seem to be demanded in contemporary venues, the intellectual dialogue of an aesthetic.  It would almost be refreshing to see more statements that go like the cliche "I don't know anything about art, but I know what I like" to "I paint it because I like it!"  or, "I paint it because I have to." ak