My Unspoken (til now) Rules of Painting & Creativity

Always surprise yourself. Never do exactly what you are expecting yourself to do.

Make things go funky and weird, but go slowly enough that you know when to stop. (When you’ve reached the right amount of funk.)

Turn “mistakes” into another unexpected quirky thingamabob.

Talk to the funky, quirky things when necessary.

Watch the work unfold with eyes and heart wide open, kind of like watching a sunset.

Don’t cry too much while painting or it’ll start to smudge. Unless you want to fill the teardrops landing there with pigment…not really sure what the salt content will do to the surface but it could be a fun experiment.

The moment when you start to get bored of something is probably the point when you need to elaborate on it twice over rather than completely abandoning it.

Ask yourself if you can make some of the blobbies just a little bit bigger. Or just a little bit smaller.

Follow the rule of gravity. Or don’t.

Once in a while, do the thing that you think (or feel) is going to turn out really ugly. You’ll either get it out of your system, or discover something incredible.

Don’t finish a painting until you’ve already started another one. (Always have something in progress.)

Don’t drink the paint water by accident, and don’t dip your brush in your tea.

*Scientists, mathematicians, statisticians etc probably wouldn’t consider all of these to fall under the definition and functionality of a “rule”. Whatever.

I’m sure some of these could apply to other artistic disciplines. And non artistic disciplines, for that matter. Which one speaks to you? Do you have any weird, unspoken limitations you put on yourself as you write, dance, plan, organize, sculpt, sketch, brainstorm, or whatever it is you do?