Uniquely Yours Craft Journal

Dear Fellow Journalers,

This is a post written by Carrie Schmitt and published to the on-line editor (Cherie Haas) of Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine on May 27, 2015.  Hope you find it helpful.

~Sallie

Cherie Haas Online Editor ClothPaperScissors.com

Dave Matthews once said, “You’ve gotta try something new every once in a while.” And I couldn’t agree more. In fact, that applies to every aspect of my life. So when Carrie Schmitt shared with me the following guest blog post in celebration of her new book, Painted Blossoms: Creating Expressive Flower Art with Mixed Media, my interest was piqued when she told me in advance that the post wasn’t traditional. And then I read her submission, and my heart swelled. Read on, and be inspired by Carrie’s words. ~ Cherie

How To Become An Intuitive Artist by Carrie Schmitt

You wake up one day and want to be an artist. You wish you could go back to school and study art.

You wonder, “Is it too late to start again?”

You discover talented self-taught artists online that are living boldly on their terms.

You want to do that.

You discover intuitive painting, which is about freeing the creativity within.

You put paint to canvas. Timidly. You try to embrace the qualities of intuitive painting–not to judge what is happening on the canvas, not to have self-doubt, to trust the process, to let go of inhibition and restraint.

You judge what is happening on the canvas.

You doubt everything you are doing.

You think this process is for special artsy types with spiky purple hair, tattoos, and combat boots.

You don’t know how to let go. You’ve been holding on to so much for so long.

You keep painting anyway. You stumble through the beginner’s shaky right of passage. The rough patches. The unsophisticated muck. You scratch the surface of what might be possible with time.

You sense the wild within you, but it is stuck. You start to remember this long ago silenced self. You wonder how to get this out of you.

You get frustrated. You think you can’t do it. You keep going.

You have so much to unlearn.

You unlearn “I am not creative.”

You unlearn “Only a few special people are artists.”

You unlearn “I am not good enough.”

You learn to trust.

Trusting yourself means believing in yourself, means loving yourself, means caring for yourself, means your world just flipped upside down.

Because caring for your whole self–mind, body, and spirit–becomes essential. You are a sacred vessel from which creativity flows.

You are sacred.

You create. Over and over. Each time unraveling. Visiting the layers of your self. Diving deeper, your heart swells. There are sensations of light, fire, bursting, shifting, cracking, floating, flowing.

You paint what has never existed before.

You awaken parts of you that never existed before.

Your intuition grows stronger.

The wild in you begins to emerge. You are coming home to yourself.

You feel your power.

You start to see beauty and possibility everywhere. Within. Without.

You let go.

There is softness in the surrender.

You unfold. You let things out. You reclaim the parts of yourself that you love. You forgive the ones that you don’t. You thank them for what they have taught and toss them out with the paint water.

You let the lines blur.

You let the paint guide you.

You let go.

You finish the painting.