The Grass is Greener where you Paint.

Guruprasad Shivakamat
Oct 6, 2016
3 min read

Art is an expression of unsaid. Observing what is unseen.The strokes,the blends,the hues all have a purpose. Our job is not to interpret but rather to facilitate, to create a non-judgmental space. Remember that scary art teacher who wanted you to be Picasso or Ravi Varma on day one of your 5th grade. Remember the critical views by the panel of parents and relatives about your first art. Then you were young had little choice now you can dispute a lot of such views. Debunk them and try your hand at the brush. So where do I start ? Like every new initiative and goals they being in our thoughts.

Present thoughts are affected by our past experience. One thing that art helps us change is perception. Art compels us to observe and think. It gives us tools to gauge our perception. Art gives an access to five different ways we perceive things. In the world where we are bombarded with information that we tend to distort to fit our use. In this act of distortion, we don’t process the details that might have been helpful. The perception that art shifts in five ways is

1)Perception of edges 2)Perception of spaces 3)Perception of relationships 4)Perception of lights and shadows 5)Perception of the whole, or gestalt

Art by changing perception, makes us think about our distortions. We are trained to see things with our bias. Art gives us an opportunity to rethink frames and edges. Making art gives us different dimensions. when you start looking at the finer edges of a painting or a sketch you know these were existing before but you never noticed. You start Appreciating what is not a direct contribution. Tao Te Ching puts it well he says “ It is the space where there is nothing that utility of everything depends on.” Understanding the negative spaces is what tell us the importance of the positives. Like in mental health the lows give us the importance of happiness. When you look at the painting there is a relationship between colours , forms, spaces, structures. Relationship helps us look at how we relate to ourselves and others. Relation between two objects, coulours and spaces gives us access to connect. The play of light and shadows adds depth that is how we add the third dimension to a canvas. The fifth element is to gestalt completion our nature is to complete things to make it whole. we tend to complete what we are not able to see currently. Creating or even observing art can contribute to creative communication, expression of feelings, hopes, problem-solving, and enhancement of thinking and reasoning skills. Art is the form of dealing your unconscious aggression. one thing that will stop you from experiencing this new world is your own sabotaging thought. “knife of the perfectionist attitude in art” says Tillie Olsen. I want you to keep this knife of perfection aside for today and develop the perception to look at yourself. Look at yourself differently. Stop fixing it before completing, getting it exact, attend specific standards. Stop looking for what many call perfectionism. When it’s expressing with art remember