Escaping into the Flow

“This connects to that, then this curves around and ends over here, that is a triangle with a curve and goes up this far, when this line ends that rectangle begins”

It is difficult to write about an activity that has no words. How to explain something that is basically intuitive? Painting is, for me, walking through a portal into a state of being that happens without words. Painting is a feeling. It is a transfer of information from my eyes to my hand by what? Thousands of tiny nerve endings? Magic?

I’ve heard this referred to as being in the flow. This is a state of being where time passes but I’m not aware of it. I am intensely focused but completely relaxed and at peace. The outside world fades away. Thoughts enter my mind and just as quickly leave. I’m concentrating on the breathtaking colors blending in the petal of a flower. I feel the lush smooth stroke of the paint. And then again on the next stroke. Each stroke is unique, but a necessary part of the whole.

I imagine that painting is very much like meditating. The left-brain is shut down and the right brain comes out to play. What a relief! The right brain has no words so the daily grind can be put on a shelf and forgotten. It isn’t even possible for me to do a left-brain task like writing while I’m painting. I tried it. I wasn’t able to organize my thoughts in any coherent way. So, no writing while painting.

When I go back and look at paintings that I have done, I ask myself, “Who painted that?” My left-brain self doesn’t get it, doesn’t remember it. If I switch to my right brain, the muscle memory is as fresh as when the painting was done. This probably sounds crazy. Shifting from my left-brain to my right brain and back is a real thing that I do, the same as transferring an object from one hand to the other.

I think in pictures. If I want to ask for a hammer, for instance, I get a picture in my mind of a hammer. Sometimes it takes a while for the word “hammer” to materialize, similar to the words floating up in a Magic 8 Ball. Usually, I have a hand gesture to accompany my request. I guess I’m hoping the other person will fill in the blank before I can come up with the word. Amazingly, this works!

I read a sad article yesterday that said that a percentage of the world’s population, I’ve forgotten the number, doesn’t have or has lost the ability to formulate pictures in their minds. That seems horrific to me. Maybe people who never had the ability don’t miss it. To anyone who has lost the ability, my heart goes out to you.

Being in the flow is addicting, and totally legal. When I am not painting, I am thinking about painting. If a day goes by that I don’t paint, I feel irritable. I will paint when there are other tasks to do like the dishes. I do pay the bills before I buy art supplies so maybe I’m not totally lost. Sometimes I feel guilty when I am painting because I should be doing other things. Then I ask myself, “What would John Singer Sargent do?” and go right on painting. I know he was in the flow!

All of these words trying to use words to describe a state of being that has no words. Experiencing the flow is being in a state of inner peace. Painting, for me, is being in the flow. The luxury of spending more time there is my favorite dream.