Sure, I can draw a face or a flower with relative accuracy. And I know how to mix colors and apply paint. But all that can be learned relatively easily. What can't be taught is the listening and discernment and that is so fundamental to a good piece of art. Art at it's best is a meditation, a conversation with oneself. It's highly somatic, meaning that for me, I have to feel through my body to attend to the impulses that drive the work, to see what wants to emerge. I have the privilege of stepping into a dimension apart from the normal cognition that dominates most aspects of our modern lives. I get to explore on a daily basis what is real and authentic for me, inching ever closer to communicating it purely and fully. What a ride! And while technique is helpful, as is talent, I submit that the art which moves us is more about the degree to which the artist is able to give way to their own intuition rather than their innate technical gifts.
