Life to Art - Nicholas Wilton - The Art2Life Podcast Episode 90

[Music] hey everyone welcome back to the art to Life podcast today I'm going to be talking about the metaphor inherent in art making the life metaphor and I love this subject I talk a lot about this because it's how I teach and first for myself and then for others the ideas around art as a practice to grow your self-awareness for who you're becoming profoundly affects the kind of art you can make and and the speed and progress you you make so every time I'm making art I'm always thinking about how this relates to my life and just the process of making a picture and I was sitting down to do this picture and I thought you know I kept getting these hits about what how I wanted to explain some of what's Happening uh when I'm making art and so I thought a really good way to maybe do this podcast would be to talk while I'm making this painting and I've never actually done this too much but anyway so I'm just going to give it a try and and you know obviously you can have I'll show you what I'm making here you can go to Art to lifepodcast.com and there's links in the show notes uh where you can watch this as a video on YouTube and we we have a whole video of this so you can see as I'm making the art but you can also just listen along uh where with whatever you're doing right now in your day so I got this white thing in front of me and there's always a resistance a little bit as to doing something as to making art as to about to create something I want to create something I always feel this I'm just so used to feeling this way that I it doesn't it just feels normal now but it's not the best feeling in the world there's a sense of I don't know what this is going to be and I'm trying to figure out ahead of time I was driving in here this morning thinking what am I going to make what am I going to paint what is how should this and you can't figure it out really you can think a little bit uh about what you want to make I guess but the process of starting something and getting in motion is most of what creates the thing most uh it's it helps you make the decisions it gives you Solutions it's just about getting in motion the the the the the process of starting something putting marks down becomes the path to this the doing becomes the path and that is so like life it's uh if you think of a hard conversation you're dreading to have I've been having some of those lately and the problem with hard conversations is you don't have them and you think about them and that's partly why they're so hard because you're putting off having the hard conversation you try to think about you know what you're going to say and then the response and then your response to what they're going to say and then you've got this whole story about what it's going to be and finally finally after Consulting with everyone you have the hard conversation and I swear every time this happens to me it's never like what I thought it was going to be it's never the response isn't the same I would have never known like you I often say this you you couldn't make this up what happened what I thought was going to happen and what happened how I thought the other person was feeling isn't what they were feeling the response was different what I said came out differently like the whole thing's totally different so there's only so much thinking you can do to prepare yourself for this magical thing called Art making and really this magical thing called life making it's the same so that's the first kind of you know I'm gonna I'm gonna go through a handful of these things that's that's number one you know maybe four or five but that's number one thinking only gets you so far it's gonna end up being different the answer comes from doing the answer comes from starting it doesn't have to be good you don't have that hard conversation you can just like mutter a few words to get it going it's always Dreadful thinking about it about to say something and once you say something it's like oh my God at least this is happening and I'm getting this going and there's relief on both sides usually now the next piece is we are sitting in front of a big white thing here and there's nothing there and I'm gonna make it better I'm going to put my intentions on this thing and and there is intimidation with that there's intimidation with starting you can't get this thing to feel less intimidating by thinking about it it doesn't work so the only way to do this is uh is to start and and and that is that is just you could sit here and think about it and notice uh that in life and in art making though the longer you think about something the longer you think about doing something often the less likelihood uh will occur that you will do it the more you do the more you do the less you do you tend to do less and less and less that's how why it's so easy to fall out of like the gym routine or the or the painting you know the pro the the practice of art making after a couple days it's like kind of more normal and well I haven't gone for three days what's another three days what's another week what's another month right so it's just knowing that the practice of starting breaks that so just get in there and start it for nothing no other reason except just to demonstrate to yourself that that this is possible that's a huge win that I change this thing I mean that's what I I have a journal right and I've shared that with many of you guys you know this journal practice where I'm making art practically every day and it no one's ever going to see it it most of it's not very good it's on a piece of paper inside of a journal and I close the book but what it does for me is it it creates this um this memory this idea that I'm doing it and I did it I did it this morning and I I'm gonna do it tomorrow and it's the whole thing and it just Builds on itself as opposed to empty spaces where nothing's happening the way out is is is by doing is getting in motion so check this out I'm going to uh I'm going to start on this okay and I will as I'm laying my paint out I'll talk about kind of this third idea here um around playing and getting in motion um painting and talking at the same time sometimes it's really actually helpful for me because I can't really concentrate but I'm pouring paints out I'm I'm not thinking very hard here um about the colors I'm going to use I'm just putting things out but the general idea that I feel is so relate so much to life is this idea of playing and becoming alive and I it's the foundation of everything we teach at Arts of life it create a Visionary program uh it's it's our way in to things that excite us and optimizing ourselves so we feel more alive and when we feel that way our art tends to feel the same and that's that's kind of a a really cool uh realization and amazing once you understand that because you just have to it's easier to get yourself to feel a certain way than it is to make a really great piece of art because in trying to make something really good it tends to tighten us up it tends we tend to compare ourselves and it's not that fun so I love this idea of first optimize ourselves and then that will make it easier to make the thing to create the artifact of how we're feeling I often talk about that idea on an airplane where somebody is uh the stewardess is you know the warning the the um instructions for the planes crashing of the oxygen Mass drop down you put it on yourself first and then you put it on your kids right because if you're not fortified if you're not safe and feeling okay then you're not going to be able to serve other people and I see it the exact same thing with with the artifact we're talking today the whole reason I'm here is is is that artifact how do we get our art amazing how do we do that and it turns out it's much easier than than I was led to believe and that's what I've spent my life teaching people like there's ways to do this and this idea of optimizing ourselves of getting ourselves to feel like how we want our art to feel um makes it much much more fun makes it easier and the quality of work the business aspect of this the kind of art that you make is strong and it holds up and we've seen this we have you know we have our Academy membership site of all our alumni and they're crushing it in the world shows and awards and exhibitions it's just this simple idea so how how do we how do we get this going and you know it's easier to talk than it is to paint so I'm going to start painting here before I go too much further um well here's the thing first of all what our souls love more than anything is to feel free and to feel and experience new things doesn't matter who you are doesn't matter what country you're from what language you speak any of that your economic socio class rank whatever none of that matters human beings are hardwired turns out to to love experiencing something new and different it makes sense right you know somebody is stuck in a soul-sucking job behind a cubicle and you know the lights are the same and the day is the same we need stimulation we we all do and that doesn't of course it's different for everyone what kinds of things they like doing some people like doing art some people like going to law school it doesn't matter but there's for sure the thing that we the big category of stuff we need is differences things that bring us Alive new experiences things that surprise us things that create Wonder in our day so this is no different than our so right now I am trying to talk and play with paint I'm just doing a bunch of stuff you guys I'm just mixing up colors and playing around with just having fun just trying things like this weird greeny yellow color I don't really do this very much this color rarely do I mix these colors together this is kind of a fabulous color this P green color and because it's different and I'm I'm not even hardly beginning I'm not thinking at all about making this into something I get to experiment I get to play and try things and this is another you know uh exploring more things finding the Wonder in your day in your art and these are I mean it's pretty obvious right but this is the way you can start feeling really great I mean you start feeling more alive I mean that's the best way I can describe what we're after you know I teach these workshops and we travel Halfway Around the World we're going to be doing one in October there's a few more spots left by the way in Morocco and we stay at this place called Janam tamzna and it's so beautiful this place it is so visual if you're visual um it is gorgeous and the reason we're going all that way because it's hard to figure out how to get all the paint there and you know it's logistically it's insane last time I had to like bribe the airport guys because they thought I was wholesaling art materials and so I'm bringing a lot of cash because I'm probably going to have to do that again because I can't get the quality of Paints in Marrakesh that we need they don't they don't have that there so I have to do this crazy thing of like bringing all the materials and I look like I'm an importer and anyway um but the reason we go to the such lengths as doing that is because people when they're there become very uh they feel really alive and why is that it's because they haven't experienced it before and we know this about traveling right I mean it's the one thing I love traveling for that reason traveling is just another word for wandering around the planet finding things that you didn't know how you loved and coming across them another lesson in here as I'm working on this I'm pretty impatient but and I want to go fast all the time and I'm I know in art that you have to kind of if you slow down a little bit and be more present that there's tremendous there's some amazing things happening here if I can just pay attention you know like okay this is not a finished thing yet but if I can just drop into it as I'm doing this there is the way the paint is coming off the brush you know that's what this art thing does it brings you into the presence and that is really an optimal way of being that we are completely embodied you're just here you're experiencing this this Tuesday afternoon I am fully here I'm just in this blue color and it's reminding me of places and ocean and water you know and by the way color is so incredible because color is abstract and color is like a placeholder for the places and experiences and smells and emotions you've had I mean literally color and if you just start thinking about it because when I think of when I have this blue color I think of swimming in in Fiji where that water is like this color and I remember when I was there and I remember swimming out to this boat that was captained by this guy John Fox and we had lunch on his boat and it was really hard climbing up the side of his boat and it was just really hot and we had this Curry and that was hot and then I remember diving into the water off the front of this boat to swim back to the beach and how beautiful the waters and how cold and cool that's you know we're talking about art and life here but that's what color does you guys and what's incredible is that we're all comfortable with it right abstract Art's kind of tricky for a lot of people right it doesn't look like something it doesn't um you know it's it's open to interpretation but in a way color is something that we've all we're all so comfortable comfortable talking about we all have a favorite color you know that's a common thing what's your favorite color but this is abstract it's just light you know like kind of amazing I mean if you try to describe what color is it's a spiritual and tricky to get your arms around as anything else but here it is just part of our life you know try to if you try to imagine a color that we don't have you just the mind boggles like what color is missing what is there a cut you know we are so used to this colors we have but maybe there's a color out there you know this is the kind of you know you bring in warm colors like this and by the way as I'm working on this um just like you know I've done a lot of um you know traveling and you a day can feel kind of those days when you're just traveling moving and it feels so good to do something else when you don't have to be on a bus or a train or whatever and you can just sit someplace and that's a little bit of what's going on here when I'm bringing in these colors I'm activating a place that feels kind of the same I if I put this color here it does a little bit but if I put this color over here where there aren't colors like this it activates this it's this does more it creates more over here than than these other areas here I'm bringing in different kinds of experiences and places into this you know and you don't have to plan this part I really teach a process of experimentation and uh and play not having a plan as a practice as a part of the process of your art making where you don't you just build this in you just create this build this in to your day to the to your art making and I tend to talk about it more in the beginning just like how I'm working today you know I'm doing this experimentation I don't know what this is going to be but I'm just talking and I'm experimenting and following what feels kind of good to me and it's kind of great if you because that's where all the learning occurs right that's how we're we're I'm trying to get in the right head frame and it's easy to do it if I have total freedom I'm not trying to make something look a certain way I'm just experimenting in this stage it'll probably all get covered up that's a powerful thing to to realize now and get some more colors here dark and Light are opposites right so if I provide those in here that's another great way that's a lighter thing so I can come up with some let's bring in some darker colors now darker value colors think about those days when you're tired and it's the weekend and you this happens to me all the time I I just don't get around to planning anything on the weekend because I've been so planned out I've been just doing a zoom call I'm doing a podcast I'm interviewing so and so when the weekend comes I'm just like I think I just I don't even want to plan it and so I don't have a plan in place and then it's like well invariably let's go get coffee and we'll walk to the coffee place and get coffee or whatever and then you end up meeting somebody and you have this conversation and then there are kids doing the Little League at the Ballpark across the street so you walk over there and you meet some other people and it turns out there's a you know a really cool red-tailed hawk in the tree you know and that's making all this noise and there's an orthologist guy there and he's talking about it and you love birds I'm just kind of making this up but that day that you're having of just kind of finding your way as you go um because you're slowing down you're going slow and nothing's planned it's a it's a powerful approach and you know I've done I love running for this for this reason and walking moving through Landscapes but compared to moving along at 40 miles an hour in a car with Windows app uh walking or even bicycling you know bicycling I have I did a long distance bicycle truck done a lot of bicycle touring and we did a trip once where we rode our bicycles through Wyoming we went through the Bighorn mountain range I believe it's called they're huge mountains and it took a few days to ride through these things up these Hills and you go on this amazing downhill it's like your neck gets tired coming off the backside into uh Cody um I'm literally you're going downhill for like an hour but it's one of the best downhills in the world but the uphill and I that was probably 35 years ago I did that right and because I was on a bicycle and we were going slow I can totally remember it and I I remember the smell I remember the experience of it uh how steep it was the signs that describe the steepness and I have driven across the country multiple times I can't even remember it I don't I don't even remember you know a little bit going through South Dakota and how flat that was but really if we want to experience things if we're open if we're present if we're going slow enough we become more sensitized we can feel more when we're going a little slower and by the way that's what's so great for us as an optimal way of being for art making so right now if we're just looking here I am playing I'm experimenting I'm putting things on and I think this is my favorite part of painting just this part forget about anything else just the practice of this is so interesting and it's so fun because there's no it's like running a race but it doesn't matter where you come in and that's good to be able to do this to stay connected to this why because you'll keep doing it because it's a practice that is there's no pressure to it you know it's just really really fun and things happen and you feel more alive doing it so I'm going to change my palette here this is the life and this is the art and this relates to this this is what we're talking about this this sort of like soup of things this Alchemy out of this comes this we this plus intention and play starts making something I want to just go a little for what I like to do uh this like how long you know how long should you experiment well I just do stuff according to how I feel now I'm feeling like this is not that I want more experiences more I feel like I've been talking you know just on this right now I've been talking a lot and I'm trying to use words and that's hard when you're also trying to paint but so I want to put bring in you know something else so some other colors and I was running out of room on my palette right which is another lesson that you can't fill things so much you don't get the new the new pink without the all giving up all those other colors you saw I had to just fold that whole thing up and that is such a lesson right Letting Go something has to die for the next thing to come in and that's just such a perfect metaphor a side one for for art making I mean I really feel like art making is is how we're designed to learn to live this life I think it's just it's a practice I think they should teach it in school and we should be involved in it all the time it's creativity and and really become comfortable in it there's so much resistant resistance and and judgment around what you can do and what you can't do and Who's Got Talent and who doesn't it's just uh it's too bad you know but we're working hard I'm working hard we're my team and I are working hard to to make this more available to anybody who who's curious and wants more Wonder in their day also in terms of design a little bit you know just notice how this pink area coming in with something new we tend to do something new the same way over and over again so uh you know doing something that you haven't done before uh is often done in a way that is kind of conservative so just know that because you haven't done it before it's like public speaking you know the first time you do it you just got to get it over with and then you're going to get better at it you're not going to come out and just you know be blazingly confident and that's just a nature of doing things a few times so just starting it is important and I see that like I brought this pink on it was kind of wild and I I did I kind of made it all the same kind of marks okay I'm gonna bring some other colors in here and by the way for those of you who do art there's something really great about having a conversation like I'm having with you right now talking and making art at the same time I'm just it's really some things can happen you can't think too hard so you tend to have your work it's kind of um it becomes it's surprising you know it's like there's there's things that happen there's things that are happening here that don't normally happen in my work because you're all here right now if you hear that scratchy noise I'm using a big brush on this picture and again if you're just got came in you can go to art2life.com click on podcasts and click on the show notes and you can see this picture that I'm starting here and you know just like walking a different way home using different tools is going to activate you in ways that you you know in surprising ways doing something different doing something in a different way that you don't normally do look what it does to the work using a different tool dramatically changes the feeling of the work it's also really it feels really great you know and I tend to do more of this if I like what's happening I love this drawing quality that I'm getting so now this well let me get a few more things I can just put a little more white on this I'm liking this better it's fun and I'm starting to feel I have a lot here and it's kind of like when you've been at a birthday party you kind of get to the point where it's like okay I think I'm think I'm complete got a lot here this was great and now I'm ready we went and saw this thing called the mountain play at the weekend and it was uh it was really long and it was in two parts but the way the play was done it's outside and it was on Mount Tamalpais it's really great but the play was long and they had two parts but the first part was uh the way it ended was it was kind of like a it was it just was felt really satisfying you know usually when you watch a show on TV or whatever A series it's designed to keep you going but this thing kind of ended halfway through and it was it was good it was fine and and we left and it was like I feel good complete ready to do something else I didn't need more I don't know if that's a sign of a good play or not but that was the result and so that's a little like this you know like I'm I'm getting like this is fun like this part you know okay so anyway you get the idea that it's just like a dog in a yard when a dog comes to we used to have this house and and it had this huge backyard area it was all fenced and people would bring their dogs over and the dogs would always run out the door and they'd run into the yard and they would run to all the cord and all all the boundaries of it it would go to this corner then we'd go over here and go over here go over here and that's just how a dog likes to experience a closed space and I think of art making in the same way that these that you go everywhere go feel like do something up in the corner there go down here to the lower part really emboss and hold and and be aware of and experience all of this right you know when you're a total person a beginner or person who doesn't have a lot of experience they'll tend to do something right in the middle and make it really small but we have this whole rectangle so you know the idea here and as in life is go to all the boundaries of what you have go there quickly do something here do something there feel that stretch into it grow into this into the into the limitations that you have right now go don't don't wait find out where the boundaries are because often you can go further let's talk about this now this sort of fourth lesson here looking into what I'm making here you know what is it that I want to see more of right like or what do I what do I want to give up right there's just like that palette that I fold folded and threw away there's a lot here you know like what do I what parts do I like here what's interesting to me like I like this part I like I kind of like that part I like this a little bit um not crazy about any of that um maybe this up here a little bit um and so I don't really like a lot of this I wasn't even trying I just I don't really like a lot of it so I can let that go and I mean if that isn't a metaphor for life I mean really figuring out and seeing what are the parts that you're that are in your life that aren't serving you that are just like kind of okay and then going after it from that perspective changing that and letting go of those areas and in art especially in painting that's just covering things up so this fourth lesson is just around you know once you start thinking again if you are ready to start thinking again about that's what you can start thinking about letting some things go that that just came because you were playing experimenting so I can cover things up I could use it one color or whatever I can use light color paint I'm going to mix up a little a little light light color and I'm going to come back in and just cover some areas up it's still playing but it's I'm definitely letting some things go covering up some areas that are not as interesting to me on also being aware of while I'm doing it the fact that as I'm doing it this is all changing and to be aware of that and staying at fifty thousand feet and saying okay I think I know what I'm doing but to just be aware that maybe something's going to happen that I wasn't expecting and that I might want to keep some of that and notice as I'm giving something up what's left becomes more noticeable and actually becomes even better but I try to just I try to just let cover up some things I try not to think about it too much because if I do then then you know it's like you pull all those clothes out you're sick of and then you you can talk yourself back into putting them back in your closet you know and you really you haven't worn it in a year why do you think you're going to wear it um you know soon if you haven't you know what are they what is Mary condo it's like if you haven't worn it in six months remove it you know which is that's pretty hard to do and what's interesting about this is that and it actually it's a lot like clothes you know the reason that you don't wear things is that and you've got them and you love them at one stage you loved it the reason that you don't wear them is that they no longer feel like you for whatever reason you look at it and you think no I don't want to be wrapped in that color again today and then you know I have that with certain colors that I thought I liked it and then and then it's like no I really never want to be in that color again well that's that is you changing and the same thing happens in your art so this process of what I'm giving up here will change based on what I'm making what my experience is uh where how I'm growing how I'm changing what the world's doing I mean look at how much covet changed our work you know this you think that you're going to lose things but all that happens is that you end up getting you end up getting more you know rarely do you lose something but you have to give something up first without the promise of something being replaced or returned in its place but usually what comes back is far greater than what you gave up in our well and in light for sure it's hard to let things change and grow and to let go of things I'm in a process right now of letting go of a ton a ton of things and you know you save things like I have all these illustrations that I've made and they're over there in the cabinet there's I've got like 5 000 pictures I've made when I was in illustrator and they're all ID they all have numbers I was thinking about this the other day and it's a lot these cabinets they're these metal cabinets I'm looking at them right now and and I can find them all I mean I've got pictures of every kind of animal every kind of concept you know and when I was doing this I thought oh and this is going to be so great to be able to find them all and then it's like what am I saving these for you know what am I do I do I just have a giant sale on these things I mean it's just so funny and we think this is so permanent that we can never lose something we never should let go of something and now with these illustrations that I've spent so much time I hired people to like put them in folders and I have photos of them all I have a FileMaker I can find an image by typing a word in I can type in tomatoes and it'll pull up every image I ever made of a tomato and it's just not what interests me anymore and I don't think it really interests anybody else either and they're they're not whatever they're just they're kind of illustrations but it is um I'm actually getting to the point where it's like I think I just need to do a giant say and I don't even think people would you know it's like what thousands of these things you know and then you're like well we'll leave it for the kids you know but I remember when my mother passed there was all these things that she'd saved and you know I've got a few things from my dad his pen knife and a couple things but I don't know you know when it loses value for you really it's time I think to kind of Let It Go so that's kind of the lesson here getting comfortable with letting go of what you don't you no longer need without worrying too much about I'm not worrying about the end result here I'm just responding to what's here and getting rid of parts and get a little bit more palette you can see how changing the palette it's interesting changing the palette is almost like taking a break you know um getting up and getting a cup of tea you know changing the palette even going to the bathroom having these little micro breaks like it's a reset I'm as I'm doing this over here I'm no longer thinking about what's going on there I and I I notice when I'm about to do something kind of more bold I do this this I kind of get ready which is a great lesson like organizing clean your studio prepare for something amazing to happen right there's a little bit of preparation there's a little bit of build up you know foreign I love scraping back through right going back through the risk of covering things up I'm finding what's underneath right we think it's all gone but it's not I love this time when the paint is not neither wet nor dry it's like this it's just this kind of sticky sticky level as I'm going here now kind of the next sort of phase it sort of the other aha Point has to do with kind of um making what is Left Right like I've got rid of all the stuff I don't like and what I like making it more prominent choosing the thing that is kind of working and doing it more so that's what I'm doing here I'm looking here I'm liking that um I think I'm going to go bigger with that a little bit making that part the parts in your life that you love making them more putting more into it being more clear about it letting people know what it is that you want that you love being clear about it so more of it comes in we we can get in this habit of thinking that oh it's good you know I should be grateful I have just this situation but you can take it further you can really optimize things and you want to because the more you get in flow with what it is that you're into making foreign possibilities occur and the more impact it has on you and other people what you're what you're putting out I mean your art is like a total expression of you and it is it's powerful and it's a Force for good so loving the boldness you know these bold marks and bringing those more in loving these lines doing more of them I love that they're making it clearer it's a powerful lesson if we're willing to do more and be clear and show that it happens more often other people start reflecting it back to you they can see it I get people all the time saying oh my God you know I found this artist I want to show you you're going to love her and and it's because they know what I like because I've been showing people what I like in my art and it's kind of great you get like people by they understand because you're being clear about it so you get kind of like like help from people that you know things cross your path that wouldn't otherwise try to make a beautiful gray here I have all these colors this is so fun to I've this is what I'm thinking when I'm making work and it's just I realize how cathartic it is for me to actually be sharing with you guys what I'm thinking about as I'm making art because it's I've always thought of it this way I've always thought of it as metaphor as life making and and really is that is the idea behind art to life it's what we're doing that approach it turns out is really available for anybody is interesting right so I can't even really see this um maybe a little bit more yellow now I'm trying to uh you know quickly scan here I'm noticing the time of course it just goes so fast when I'm making art always but I'm looking here at some of the things that I love like some of this color and bringing some of this color back in few more spots that color ah so fun all right you guys well I hope you had as much fun as I did and again if you're here uh listening go hop on over to art2life.com click on podcasts and you can see the start of this thing I made I'm not quite sure I'm I think it's so amazing but it's something um oh my God see it's so hard to not just to stop that's the problem [Music] um as you do art as you're going on it you become more sensitive to it which is happening and I'm adding things now that that are slight improvements that I can just see it needs because I've been staring at it for half an hour anyway you guys listen thanks so much for being here and uh we have a really cool little uh audio recorder at artslife.com under podcast is a little yellow tab you can click on it it says ask Nick a question or leave a comment and it's really cool it records your voice and I put together uh episodes occasionally of some really cool questions and comments and I talk back about them and we have a conversation so go ahead and let me know your thoughts on this uh how you see the metaphor of life in your art making uh I'd appreciate it and if you have a friend uh who you think this could be helpful for this podcast please share it with them it's just so great we're seeing a lot of people sharing this and leaving reviews is really really helpful and rating I so appreciate it thanks so much for being here and I will see you next week right here okay thanks everyone foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Art2Life

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Id: kUUf6jiDph8

Length: 49min 42sec (2982 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 12 2023