The Adjacent Possible: Guidebook & Stories Of Artistic Transformation (The Art Of The Possible Series) 9781955028042, 1955028044

Citation preview

THE

GUIDEBOOK & STORIES OF ARTISTIC TRANSFORMATION

NANCY HILLIS, M.D. BRUCE SAWHILL, PH.D.

First published by The Artist’s Journey Press 2021 Copyright 2021 by Nancy Hillis, M.D. and Bruce Sawhill, Ph.D. Visit the author’s website at https://artistsjourney.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, shared, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, mechanical methods, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the authors. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission. Requests to the author and publisher for permission should be addressed to the following email: [email protected]. Cover design and interior formatting by David Provolo. Cover art by Nancy Hillis, M.D. Edited by Bruce Sawhill, Ph.D. First edition ISBN: 978-1-955028-04-2

Dedication

To my one and only beloved mother, Ernestine Keeling Hillis. The waterfall of your ebullient laughter lifts my spirit and lives in my heart. To the fabulous artists who shared their stories and artworks to bring the adjacent possible alive: Marian Bach, Dee Berridge, Margaret Brand, Rhonda Campbell, Kathryn Deiss, Dana Dion, James Edward, Sandra Felemovicius, Betty Franks, Libby Manchester Gilpatric, Andrea Graham, Maggy Herbert-Jobson, Kay Hunt, Marina Ichikawa, Gisela Kissing, Kathy Lavine, Jane Lombard, Brittany Lyn, Bob Reid, Marilyn Simler, Karen Sparks, Vera Tchikovani, Elizabeth Vander Schaaf, Lorraine Willis, and Cheryl Wilson. To our readers: May you access the adjacent possible in your art and life.

BOOK RESOURCE LIBRARY READ THIS FIRST Thank you for purchasing this book. As a way of expressing our gratitude, we’ve created a Book Resource Library with a series of lessons including: The Artist’s Archetype Quiz, Adjacent Possible Creativity Challenge, and The Adjacent Possible: The Science of Creativity Podcast to enrich your journey through The Adjacent Possible book. Before working your way through the book, please head over to:

adjacentpossible.com/library

and register to access the book resource library.

Quiz

Creativity Challenge

Podcast ADJACENTPOSSIBLE.COM/LIBRARY

Table of Contents Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Introduction: The Adjacent Possible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Section I: The Inner Journey

1-Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 2-The Story of Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 3-Creating Is an Inner Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 4-Trusting Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 5-The Magic of Embracing Uncertainty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 6-Creative Conversations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 7-The Paradoxical Language of Mistakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 8-Is A Painting Ever Ruined? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 9-Painting Is a Mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70

10-Leitmotifs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 11-Refusing the Refusal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 12-Standing in Your Own Two Feet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 13-What You’re Afraid of Is Where The Juice Is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99 14-Through the Unknown Gate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 15-Allowing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Section II: Start

16-Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 17-Zero to One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 18-You Can Start Anywhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 19-More Starts, Fewer Finishes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 20-The Six Maquette Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 21-Your Personal Lexicon of Mark Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 22-Sketchbook Starts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Section III: Experiment

23-Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 24-What If? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 25-The Surprise Benefits of Ugly Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 26-I Want You Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 27-The Paintings of Your Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 28-Don’t Throw Away Your Ugly Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 29-Bite Into It, Baby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 30-The Spontaneous & The Considered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 31-Clay Maquettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 32-The Paradoxical Power of Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 33-Take Line on A Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 34-Intersections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Section IV: Evolve

35-Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 36-An Evolving Catalog of Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 37-An Evolving Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 38-Many Adjacents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 39-Evolution Made Visible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 40-Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 41-Flux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 42-The Evolving Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 43-Cultivating Surprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 44-Combinatorics & Re-Combinatorics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 45-Phase Transitions & Artistic Breakthroughs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 46-Invisible Locks & Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 47-Symmetries: Enantiomers & Inverses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 48-The Elegant Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

49-The Art of The Possible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 50-Synesthesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 51-Risk Hacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 52-Breaking Through . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 53-The Adjacent Possible Takes You Somewhere New . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382 54-Is A Painting Ever Finished? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388 55-Coda: Many Forking Paths & The Art of The Possible . . . . . . . . . . . . 397 56-Epilogue: Art Abides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 57-This Moment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Benediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420 Featured Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422 About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440 Other books by Nancy Hillis, M.D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Preface We have always been fascinated by the nature of creativity and how it is reflected through story. The germ of this book’s theme emerged one April afternoon in 2017 at the Wilsey Center for Opera of the San Francisco Opera where Nancy gave an invited talk on art and the hero’s journey. We composed the talk together over several months, inspired by everything from Nancy’s teenage exposure to Dante Alighieri’s Inferno and Bruce’s experience teaching Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey at St. John’s College to our mutual fascination with the movie Star Wars. This began our reflective journey on the nature of story, both in the history of artistic creativity and individual creative works themselves. This talk given at the opera was the genesis of our idea of the abstracted hero’s journey where the hero does not have to be a living being, but rather could be a theme, a pattern, a work of art, a creation. Going forward, the opera art talk inspired hundreds of conversations while walking along the foaming Pacific Ocean at the edge of Santa Cruz, California where we live. The everchanging fluid turbulence of the ocean inspired insight into the creative process and brought new ideas to the surface. These conversations found their way to light, via blog posts and the previous book, The Adjacent Possible: Evolve Your Art from Blank Canvas to Prolific Artist. This companion book in your hands emerged as we realized the enormous variety of artists’ creative paths as reflected in their stories. We were captivated by the self-referential idea of using story in the particular sense to illuminate story in the general sense.

P R E FAC E

11

Introduction: The Adjacent Possible In the adjacent possible, your act of creating affects existence itself. The adjacent possible is a concept from evolutionary biology and theoretical physics, a conceptual framework to understand systems capable of modifying and transforming themselves. More specifically in an artistic context, it is the idea that each step you take, each mark you make as you create, illuminates several possible steps forward that were not only invisible before but did not exist before you took that step because you also changed the context of your creative step. This is the nitty-gritty of creation and creativity.

Your action not only changes the environment you are in, but also creates it. In artistic creativity, you physically modify your creation by, for example, adding a brushstroke or subtracting marks and shapes, or adding clay to your sculpture, or chiseling away at the marble. You might change a harmony or add passing tones to a melody. These actions change how you perceive your creation, so you have a modified creation in a modified context. It is coconstruction; it is co-evolution. You are continually developing your work as an artist and creator.

A Different Uncertainty Principle The Adjacent Possible is akin to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle in physics, the concept from quantum mechanics that your act of observing something changes what is observed, yet it is even more subtle and broad than that.

12

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

In Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, your act of observing affects what is observed whereas in The Adjacent Possible, your act of creating affects existence itself, not just the observation of something preexisting such as an electron, a typical subject for the Uncertainty Principle. A couple of other key concepts “ride shotgun” with the idea of the adjacent possible and are essential companions on our journey. These are phase transitions and poised instability.

Phase Transitions Phase transitions are another idea from physics, the observation and attending theory about how matter changes forms, such as ice to water or vice versa, but still remains the same stuff. These transitions are characterized by a kind of suddenness–ice remains ice until the melting point, not a degree lower or higher. The creative analogy of a phase transition is an artistic breakthrough. At the “melting point,” we have elements of two co-existing realities–your old worldview and the beginnings of a new worldview interspersed like pockets of meltwater in a block of ice. But, unlike a block of ice, you are a conscious being trying to make sense of this. You have the power to engineer your own transformations aided by insights from nature and your accumulated artistic experience. You can choose to unfreeze yourself. We believe that sense-making requires incorporating your new emerging worldview into your old one and thus synthesizing a new one that is adjacent to what you had before. Far enough away to be different and perhaps surprising, yet close enough to incorporate and make sense of. As you seek artistic breakthroughs, you also need to be able to integrate them into your life, to be able to appreciate them, to be able to explore them.

INTRODUCTION

13

This requires living right at the edge of a phase transition, something that is not easy to do. We’re here to help.

Poised Instability Skating along the edge of two ways of being is an example of poised instability. An example of a physical system that demonstrates this is an underwater rock in a stream. Water flows smoothly over the first part of the stone, but then turns to froth for the downstream part. The break point between smooth and turbulent flow shifts back and forth but stays in the same neighborhood, roughly stabilized by the presence of the rock. This phenomenon is persistent because it is structural in nature–the rock is firmly planted in the riverbed; the water is moving at the right speed and depth. A more human-centric example is a classic computer science problem, that of “broom balancing.” Have you ever tried to balance a broom on your hand with the brush part straight up in the air and the handle resting on your flat palm? It takes a lot of hand moving and it is hard to keep going for more than a few seconds. It is fundamentally unstable and requires effort to maintain. The boundary between the stable and the unstable is a slippery thing, just like the boundary between an existing self-consistent worldview and a new one that is not initially self-consistent. As creatives, we seek ways of living at this boundary of the known and unknown because that’s where creativity flourishes. We need elements of the smooth and predictable as well as the turbulent and unpredictable. We need structure that will keep us in the sweet spot like a rock in the riverbed. We see examples of poised instability in the life/death/life cycles of nature. Nature is continually

14

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

in the dynamic balance between creation and collapse. There is endless churn accompanying endless creativity, but there is also underlying structure that emerges from the interplay of the two. Have you ever played a game of Jenga? So carefully put together, so suddenly a pile of wooden pieces. Why do so many things collapse quickly but grow slowly? How do we contrive to stay at that exciting place of possibility?

Life On the Edge Like so many things in life, there’s a trade-off. Poised instability is unstable, it’s easy to drop the broom or fall off the surfboard into the water, but it also means you have many options in front of you. You can go many different directions because you are not firmly embedded in any one direction. There’s a trade-off between having lots of possibility and having stability and predictability. If you go too far in the direction of stability, it kills off possibility. If you play it too safe, it becomes static. You start doing the same thing, emulating yourself. Saying: Oh, this works. I’ll just keep doing that. Pretty soon, you’re barely making changes to keep maintaining the winning formula of repeating what’s worked. Eventually, you forget how to explore, to live in that place of poised instability, that place where the most possibilities are. If you keep doing what you’re doing, you keep getting what you’re getting. But there’s a sweet spot, a jump-off place for exploring many possibilities.

INTRODUCTION

15

A Story of Poised Instability and Surfing We live in coastal California, and Bruce is a surfer. He says he’s not a good one because he started at age 47, unlike many of the locals who have long since logged their ten thousand hours by starting at seven years old or whenever they could find a small enough wetsuit, but he still gets enjoyment out of it. One of the things you find when surfing is that you are continuously interacting with the environment. You’re making decisions every second, faster than you can verbalize them, kind of like the broom balancing example. You’re poised in a dynamic equilibrium. Surfing is rich in metaphors for this situation, which is why surfer slang has permeated the culture so widely. The language has proliferated because it is useful, concise, and descriptive of many of life’s eventualities beyond the water. As you surf, the environment is telling you where to go, but you are also affecting the environment and interacting with other surfers. Surfing brings out the dynamic tension between two strategic philosophies–There is the “I’m doing it my way” philosophy (apologies to Frank Sinatra) which runs head-on into the dynamics of natural forces with unsatisfactory results. There is the “Go with the flow” philosophy, which leads to bobbing in marginal waves, missing many potential good rides. Bruce discovered a sweet spot between those two philosophies, one that is simultaneously determined and adaptive, living at a place of poised instability. Only there does one progress as a surfer. It reminds us of an aphorism he heard a Buddhist friend say– “Hang on tightly, let go lightly.”

16

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

The Inner Journey of Creativity Over the course of two decades of guiding artists and creatives, we’ve seen a ubiquitous pattern in the creative life cycle of being an artist. This is the centrality of the Inner Journey that affects everything in your art and life. The alpha and the omega of art and life is your inner journey–it’s essentially your hero’s journey– your ability to say yes to that which calls you, even though you face perils like self-doubt, inner criticism, and procrastination. This is about your psychology, your mindset, and your ability to trust yourself to say yes to your dreams. Working with artists over the years, I observed overarching patterns in the life cycle of being an artist that profoundly affect one’s art. There is a crucial progression from emulating others, to moving past emulating yourself, to finally expressing your own unique, evolving art. I believe this progression involves four studio practices I have distilled into a conceptual framework, the ISEE Creativity Methodology. I – Inner Journey S – Start E – Experiment E – Evolve These principles guide artists who desire to create their deepest, most alive, and astonishing art.

INTRODUCTION

17

Once you’ve said yes, once you’ve gone ahead anyway–even though you’re unsure and afraid– we’ve found there are 3 key actions artists must take, again and again, to innovate and keep creative channels open. In this book, we illustrate the Inner Journey and the three components of the creative process with stories from many artists, all of whom have sought and learned from fortuitous surprise in their lives. In Section I, we explore the overarching concept of the Inner Journey associated with the psychology of creativity through concepts and artists’ stories. We lay out a road map for understanding and exploring your creative urges with insights from the Hero’s Journey. In Section II, we explore the power of the first action, that of starting. Nothing else happens without starting. Why is it so hard? We claim it doesn’t have to be and offer several ways around the roadblock of beginning a work of art. In Section III, we follow the first action of starting with the second action of experimenting, using insights from observing natural processes of ecology and evolution. We offer suggestions on how to make the best use of your efforts at experimentation. In Section IV, we investigate the power of the third action, that of evolving your art. This is the Holy Grail of the well-lived creative life, where we come full circle on our inner journey of trusting ourselves. This is how we can seek out the sweet spot of creative dynamics and keep learning and reinventing ourselves in our art and life. Each chapter of a particular section explores a related concept illustrated and animated by vignettes and paintings of contemporary working artists. Their stories personalize these principles in a way no ordinary text can.

18

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

This guidebook poses numerous questions, including: How do you bring The Adjacent Possible concept alive? How do you access and implement The Adjacent Possible in your art? We talk about this theoretically and then move into practical applications. Let’s begin the journey. You don’t need to pack a bag and there will not be a test.

INTRODUCTION

19

Section I: The Inner Journey

1 - Introduction Your Inner Journey Affects Everything We’re pulling the camera back and looking at the overarching psychological journey that is inherent to the artist’s journey. We invite you to metaphorically sit on a round, smooth rock by the side of the path, pull out the big map, and reflect on where you’re going and where you’ve been as an artist and human being. Get comfortable, but not too comfortable. This is the map of the inner journey. This is about facing your fears and self-doubt, going ahead anyway, and finally saying yes to your dreams. And we return to the concept of the adjacent possible again and again as an overarching framework for the artist’s journey. Your mindset, your psychology, your belief, and trust in yourself–or lack thereof–affects your art, your creativity, your life. It has far-reaching implications and potential consequences. It is so important in your art that we call it the “holy grail.” Let’s begin.

INTRODUCTION

21

2 - The Story of Creativity Art is a mirror; it reflects your life.

Art, literature, and music reflect life. They resonate with us because we are moved by the intellectual and spiritual nourishment they provide. They make universal truths personal and accessible. Humans are moved by stories. However far back we delve into the human history of communication, the concept of story shows up again and again. From cave paintings to Homer and into our present age, stories persist. There is scientific evidence that our brains retain information more effectively when there is a connecting framework, a narrative. Ideas need to be woven into a context to survive, a kind of tapestry of meaning. This narrative can be explicit, expressed in words, or implicit, expressed in patterns of sound or light. It seems self-evident how a work of literature might tell a story, with carefully structured prose that develops an idea. But how would a work like an abstract painting or sonata tell a story?

The Hero’s Journey In the 1870s, the English anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor undertook a systematic comparison of heroic journeys in literature across human history and found that they tended

22

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

to adhere to a standard repeating form of challenge-refusal-tipping point-acceptance-crisisvictory-assimilation. Tylor’s ideas gained much wider acceptance in the 20th century with their popularization and further development by Joseph Campbell and others. I submit to you that the Hero’s Journey is not limited to literature but occurs in abstract fields as well. The “hero” does not have to be a person, but can be an idea, a form, a theme, a pattern of sound or light. It can refer both to the creator and the object of creation. Human brains have evolved to excel at noticing patterns, probably because it confers increased chances of survival in a world of ever-present danger, whether saber-toothed tigers, art critics, or blank canvasses.

The Importance of Evolving as An Artist Recently I was thinking about how we never stand still as artists. In my own work, I’ve traveled the territory of working in bold, chromatic colors to predominantly neutral palettes. And yet, even as I begin to identify this pattern, I notice a slight stirring in my heart to revisit my old love of bright hues.

Evolution, Human Development & Art As artists and creators, we’re continually evolving our work. Not satisfied to remain static, we explore and experiment. This suggests the notion of evolution as analogous to human development and how essential this is to being an artist. I believe we move through developmental cycles much like the stages of human development. T H E S TO RY O F C R E AT I V I T Y

23

As Shakespeare said in As You Like It, All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. In the beginning, there’s mirroring. We soak up the works of the masters and artists we admire and reflect it back in our art much like a mother reflects the feelings and emotions of her baby. The late British psychiatrist D.W. Winnicott said “In individual emotional development the precursor of the mirror is the mother’s face.” Early on, we mimic what we see–we learn techniques and how to use various tools. At first it feels awkward, but eventually we begin to create marks and paint passages with facility. We study the vocabulary of composition and color theory. We begin to speak a new language. We explore value patterns much as children discover their shadows. We become increasingly facile with rendering what we see before us, whether it’s a figure, landscape, still life, or the work of a masterful painter. But one day, this isn’t enough. One day, it’s no longer gratifying. One day, like a teenager, we grow bored.

24

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

One day, we decide we want to: • Paint the ineffable • Explore the mystery of who we are • Express our aliveness • Compose our own individuality And so, we plunge into unknown territory and begin our journey of experimentation. There’s no final phase. You don’t reach some evolved state and stay there. It is continuous evolution. Even as you develop mastery, there is no endpoint. Indeed, we often come full circle and revisit earlier phases but now with new understandings. We spiral back to our foundations and see with new eyes.

The Hero’s Journey & The Adjacent Possible The abstracted hero steps outside of self-consistent reality to something new, something adjacent, and the Hero’s Journey is a story of the Adjacent Possible, of exploration, incorporation, and return. An artwork tells a story in time or space of the journey, the travelogue of entering an unfamiliar world and overcoming the challenges of making sense of it and incorporating the newness into the creator’s previous reality.

T H E S TO RY O F C R E AT I V I T Y

25

The Adjacent Possible becomes integrated into the creator’s new reality, and the artwork is its record. As Pablo Picasso said, “Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” It is a process like the Dutch creation of polders–inholdings of underwater land diked and emptied of water to become new land, land that joins the previously extant landscape to make a cohesive whole.

Liminal States A “liminal state” is a poised state of being, one that exists on the boundary of two realities. The word comes from the Latin limen, meaning “threshold.” The concept of the liminal state was first developed in the early 20th century by folklorist Arnold Van Gennep, who, like Tylor before him, was seeking to understand the structure of story. In literature, a liminal deity is a god or goddess who presides over thresholds, whether gates or doorways. Liminal states are relevant to our discussion because they relate to poised instability, the Adjacent Possible, and the Hero’s Journey. The Adjacent Possible can be seen as an alternate reality that is nearby, through a doorway that one may or may not choose to pass through. The Hero’s Journey is the act of decision–Should I pass through the doorway or am I sufficiently content where I am? What threats await me on the other side? Confronting a new possible reality can be disorienting.

26

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

This point of decision is a point of poised instability–An uncomfortable place pregnant with possibility, the knife edge where creativity lives. In psychology a liminal experience is associated with existential issues of death, illness, and disaster–the negative thoughts associated with the Hero’s Journey. The purpose of this book is to tell you, dear Reader and Artist, stories of the liminal state and to convince you it is a place you might not only want to visit, but to take up permanent residence. We’ll open with two artist’s vignettes–one from Brittany Lyn, the other from Marian Bach.

Vignette: Brittany Lyn In preparing for lengthy train journeys to visit family out of town, I always made sure to have a book packed and readily accessible. Surely there was some unwritten rule that nobody sits on a train doing absolutely nothing. Inevitably, the book would remain unopened in my hands. Arriving at the destination, I would be somewhat wary of the fact that I had indeed spent the entire trip staring out the window. Was there something ‘simple’ about my mind that it needed no additional stimulation? Who does that? a critical voice chirped in the back of my mind. This was my perspective a few years ago. I am extraordinarily grateful for the day my younger self decided to bring a pen and a sketchbook along for one of those train rides.

T H E S TO RY O F C R E AT I V I T Y

27

Brittany Lyn | Noticing, 3” x 5” each

28

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Looking back at the sketches today, I can now see that, this ‘doing nothing’ was a period full of appreciation of the fleeting observations of line, shape, movement, and pattern falling around me as the train raced through the landscape. These raw sketches are a record of my experience existing in a given space and time. Regardless of whether these observations were ever captured on paper, I have learned there is value in taking time to simply be and observe. It is a practice of noticing that inevitably informs the gestures of future work. -Brittany Lyn

Vignette: Marian Bach I am eager to share this collage of many discoveries, foundations, and big ahhs that I’ve learned studying with Nancy. A hero’s journey by any definition.

Marian Bach | Between the Lines, 22” x 30”

T H E S TO RY O F C R E AT I V I T Y

29

Over time I developed a strong studio practice.

Marian Bach | Once A Landscape, 42” x 30”

30

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

The inarticulable satisfaction I’ve found there made me realize, I am living a dream, I am living the Life of the Artist.

Marian Bach | Study, 13” x 13”

Quartet of My Life, Quartet of My Art Start You can start anywhere. Trust yourself, you are the Artist

T H E S TO RY O F C R E AT I V I T Y

31

On a Hero’s Journey. Our Inner Landscape is The Overarching Principle in Art and in Life. (b/c it’s hard) Foundations Value, Structure, Predominance, Simplicity and Constraint, Color, and Mark Making, Beginners Mind. Dive Deep for these Pearls. Studio Practice (Zero to One) Many, many Starts, Less Finishes, No Precious Paintings, Work in a Series, Try a One- or Two-Color Palette

32

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Try the Maquettes (a Treasure Trove and Big Fun). Ugly Paintings Love You Back. Cultivate Ease Notice, as you Explore and Embrace Not Knowing. It’s Where the Juice Is. Poised Instability Means Something Exciting is on the Verge Keep Going and Trusting, As you Become Your Best Teacher -Marian Bach

Reflection: The Spiral of Creation Life is like a spiral. We come around, again and again–each time a bit different as we face ourselves in our art and life. Reflect on the spirals in your own life. What are the recurrent themes and lessons?

T H E S TO RY O F C R E AT I V I T Y

33

3 - Creating Is an Inner Journey Your inner narrative, your mindset, your psychology affects everything in your art and life. Whether you’re facing a blank canvas, wrestling down the dark angels of self-doubt and wondering if you’re really an artist–or glued to the sofa and finding excuses not to go into your studio–your psychology is central to your creativity. It may not seem heroic to walk into a studio and pick up a brush, but Hero’s Journeys come in all shapes and sizes, from almost imperceptible to the central challenge of one’s life. They all matter, and they all interact with each other.

Vignette: Maggy Herbert-Jobson The Power of Wizards Long long ago and far away, when she was about six or seven years old, M. loved to play with paper and paste and paint, but she was very, very messy, in the way little people can be–and some adults like her. She was at a very grown-up school, where good people painted carefully within the lines– something she could not do. And so, for the first time, she encountered the power that bad wizards can hold. She was told she was too messy and untidy and so forbidden to paint and told she should go and do math and English and other such subjects, but not art.

34

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

She followed the edict of the big person–because she sensed she was a very strong wizard with great powers. And so followed her prescription and did Mathematics and English but never again went into an art room. That little person was quite shy and quiet, but in time, she learned the magic of the written word– and although she followed the wizard’s dictate of math and English, she also loved the magic of books, of stories, and of poetry and the images thus created. And so, her life continued through school, through college, and out into the big world, but she knew she wasn’t allowed to paint. At the age of 17, she made her first trip abroad, traveling solo to Hanover and encountered the incredible German expressionist painters. Their explosive work of color and mark making somehow registered that not all painters stayed within the lines. But still, she didn’t paint. Meantime her life followed a pretty exciting path and eventually into a fast track career in consulting, offered an exciting smorgasbord of powerful visual and cultural experiences traveling from China to Guatemala, from the Pacific to Eastern Europe, from remote India and South Africa to the Americas, loving the window of color and difference–a powerful contrast to her northern European homeland. But still, she didn’t paint. But then, one day some 50 years later, she managed to fracture several vertebrae in a nasty horseback riding accident and ended up in spinal rehab. With sticks various, she stumbled into an art room and found a small book of unusual watercolors by John Blockley and was entranced. An art therapist pottered over and asked if she would like to paint “just do some washes?” She asked what a wash was. Incredibly hesitant and shy, she refused to be with other people, but learned to play on her own, behind closed doors and quietly fell in love with the magic of mark making and color. C R E AT I N G I S A N I N N E R J O U R N E Y

35

Serendipity was a house move to the UK’s Cotswolds–an area of outstanding natural beauty. And even more extraordinary–as an almost complete novice, by chance was invited to join the John Blockley Group–an association of mainly very successful professional artists. It was terrifying but magical. And so yes, she finally began to paint, but always alone, hiding her work, horrified at the thought of being not good enough. And so, it continued. Her love of painting turned into a passion. She devoured art books and sought skilled tutors, but despite being selected for many major national juried competitions and exhibitions, she remained nervous about painting with others–only willing to show her work when it was professionally manicured by mounting or framing. But then one day, many many years later in 2019, she happened to find Nancy Hillis’ Studio Journey and there began an incredible transformation of not only her painting–but her very being. The terror of being judged for being messy or worse, for being thrown out of class, was overwritten by a good wizard–who rewrote the journey. The idea of many, many starts and then gentle counsel of living with the raw and the ugly–and the sheer magic of exploring. The change was slow, but built strongly, built step-by-step, week after week, art bundle by art bundle–and the shy caterpillar began to feel she might just have wings. The fear of dismissal and not being good enough has been replaced by a love of experimenting and sharing–not just the manicured and framed, but often the very raw and experimental. The magic of the good wizard–who has been her wonderful Guide along the path of Studio Journey. Hallelujah for the power of Nancy Hillis and the support of the other Journeyers. The program has been absolutely transformational.

36

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

After nearly seventy years, Maggy is allowed to paint and share her work–the good, the bad, and sometimes the very, very ugly! -Maggy Herbert-Jobson

Maggy Herbert-Jobson | The Quiet Path, 14.5” x 14.5”

C R E AT I N G I S A N I N N E R J O U R N E Y

37

Maggy Herbert-Jobson | Coonoor Via Ooty, 14.5” x 14.5”

Coonoor Via Ooty was selected for a major national juried exhibition in the UK.

Reflection: My Inner Journey Mind Map Materials: Large sheet of paper, marker, or pens

38

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

In the center of the paper, write: My Inner Journey. Draw a circle around this title. Allow your mind to generate ideas, images, feelings, associations, related concepts, and anything else that comes to mind. Write your associations to your inner journey of creating. • What does creating art bring up for you? • What are the challenges, aha moments, revelations, and observations you have encountered in your art? • Where would you like to go with your art? • What are the stories, images, symbols, motifs, and sources that fuel your art? • What scares you? • What stops you? • What encourages you? • What would you like to explore next in your art? Connect your associations to the central title with a line and circle. Are there recurring motifs? Ideas that stand out and energize you? Associations you would like to let go of? Are your associations mostly positive, negative, neutral, or some combination? Do you see themes emerging? Is there an overarching idea? Notice and write about the connections and intersections between your associations.

C R E AT I N G I S A N I N N E R J O U R N E Y

39

4 - Trusting Yourself The art of activating the canvas and bringing a painting to life with your own personal lexicon of mark making, expressive gestures, and brushwork is nothing short of miraculous. To create art that is unique to you and your own voice and vision is the highest attainment for an artist and yet, the most elusive. It requires a willingness to say yes to the creative ideas that call you, even though you tell yourself you don’t know what you’re doing. You must face the perils of self-doubt that emerge as you step into the terra incognita, the unknown territory. Being an artist is risky and vulnerable. It can feel frustrating and torturous. You’re not going to love all your paintings–the path is strewn with half-finished, abandoned artworks. And yet, the magic and the mystery that unfolds when a painting emerges that mesmerizes you–a painting you love–is worth the struggle. All of this comes down to one overarching thesis–trusting and believing in yourself and your art.

Vignette: Betty Franks I have a story about how I came to create this kind of artwork. I didn’t start creating until I turned 50 and I’m 58 now. It’s been a wonderful journey so far, but in the beginning I was doing some work in mixed media that I had just stumbled upon on the internet and I fell in love with that. To this day, I remember the feeling of falling in love with abstract art and it has stayed with me all

40

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

these years. I grew from there because I was only working on small pieces on 5 x 7 or 4 x 6-inch index cards at the time. I wanted to start creating larger works, but I also wanted to create abstractly. And that’s where you (Nancy) came into play and where I learned about you and your first online course back in March 2016. The year before I had gone to a workshop in Canada, and that’s when I put the stake in the ground and said, I want to be an abstract painter. That workshop had nothing to do with learning how to paint abstractly–it was more about the inner artist. But I decided from this day forward, I’m an abstract artist. I had no idea how to do that, but I knew I was an abstract artist now. And then I learned about you and took your workshop. One of the most important things I got out of your workshop was the freedom of loving my marks. Prior to your workshop, I questioned every mark I put down on paper. I questioned all of my mark making in a very negative way. Why did I do that? And what does that mean? And I don’t even like that. I don’t know if I should like that. Should I like it? Shouldn’t I like it? I don’t know. I want to get one thing out of every workshop that I go to because it’s hard to absorb all of it and pull all of that into your artwork. That was the one thing that I really got out of your workshop that I carry with me to this day. Now I love all my marks, every mark is excellent work. After a couple of years of learning, stumbling, figuring things out, it was the spring of 2018. When I visited my parents in Croatia, spring wildflowers were in bloom. My mom loves going on walks and we walked around and picked all these flowers. We made bouquets because my mom loves them and has a gift of flower arranging.

TRUSTING YOURSELF

41

Mom placed each flower just so, in an exquisite and artistic way. We had little bouquets all over the house and I remember sitting outside, looking over the gorgeous view of the Adriatic Sea.

Betty Franks | A Sprinkle of Love, 14” x 11”

42

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I was sitting outside, and I remember putting out my art stuff, my plastic to cover the table, my paints, my brushes.

Betty Franks | My Own Sunshine, 14” x 11”

TRUSTING YOURSELF

43

And I said to myself, Betty, you’re on vacation. Just paint. I still remember that feeling. I was giving myself permission to just paint.

Betty Franks | Pink Love, 14” x 11”

44

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

After I created several paintings, I realized I was painting bouquets of flowers. I’ve always loved flowers, but I never connected them with my artwork or what I was trying to express or not express. I knew I loved flowers, but I didn’t know how much I loved flowers. Having these bouquets of flowers and constantly being around them and enjoying walks with my mom became embedded deeply into my psyche. It wasn’t like I created that first one and said, Oh, that’s what I’m creating. It took a little while to figure that out. And then to be able to look back and say, Oh, that’s what I was creating. Since then, I have strengthened my skills in creating art that expresses my love for fields of flowers. My love for flowers in general, my love for color that mirrors my love for life, my joy in life, my happiness in life. So, it’s trying to bring all of that together. And so, I’ve continued to grow as an artist in that way. And it’s quite different from what I was creating several years ago. I can see the progression, but I can still see that both my previous work and my current work are very much me. Something emerged out of those walks with my mother, and I didn’t know where it was going to go, and I didn’t know it was going to become this whole journey of creativity. But I just went with it. And I think it was that ability to give myself permission that enabled this new adventure. It was important to not think about it so much and not worry about it and just see that it was like this faucet that turned on and just started flowing. It was different from my previous experience where I struggled so hard. Finally, everything just flowed. -Betty Franks

TRUSTING YOURSELF

45

Reflection: A Letter from Your Future Self Imagine yourself in your future–it may be a year or several years from now. Write a letter to yourself about why you believe in yourself and what you’ve learned about yourself as an artist in those years. Talk about your art. Project into the future some ideas and dreams for yourself. Imagine what you have accomplished and write about this. The idea is to envision how you wish to be and who you want to become as an artist. This will guide you through the perils of creating.

46

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

5 - The Magic of Embracing Uncertainty The word “predicament” comes from the Latin praedicamentum, meaning “that which is predicated.” In more modern parlance, it is “the cards one is dealt.” It has been said that it is not the cards that one is dealt that determines your life, but how you play them. We live in a state of predicament, as we always start with something. Uncertainty is inherent in predicaments, namely in how we are going to deal with them. Predicaments can have surprise benefits, for instance in the creative process of re-framing a perceived setback. The setback can be crafted into a transformational experience by contemplating how it can be used to explore the unknown by forming a framework for experimentation and discovery.

Vignette: Marina Ichikawa Tapping Into Blindness or–uncertainty is addictive Uncertainty has always been a major element for my personal growth. Recently I encountered unexpected eye problems. I had surgery and was told not to work with my eyes for a period of 14 days to have a quick and good recovery. No screen, no reading, no painting. Even more, I increasingly felt the strong wish to paint. How could I be creative without using my eyes?

T H E M AG I C O F E M B R AC I N G U N C E R TA I N T Y

47

I started with plain paper. I mounted it on an easel and waited for the dark. The stars and moonlight showed me barely the margins of the paper. The only decisions I took were the limits I imposed on myself: darkness, left hand, 2 crayons, 1 continuous line. Being a right-hander, the left hand is a statement to even more uncertainty and letting the unconscious decide on what needs to be expressed. 2 crayons for emphasizing the blurriness. I was surprised about the self-imposed limitations that seemed to be voiced by my unconscious as well. However, I could not wait to start and see what would emerge. Right from the first try, I was thrilled by the outcome.

Marina Ichikawa | saumon, 16.53” x 11.69”

48

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I perceived the creations as if somebody else had painted them.

Marina Ichikawa | perdue, 16.53” x 11.69”

They touched me deeply because they showed facets of myself which I had not known before. Even more surprising, they visualized my inner landscape without my own intention, not only offering explanation, but also sometimes showing ways forward. T H E M AG I C O F E M B R AC I N G U N C E R TA I N T Y

49

Marina Ichikawa | bluegreen, 11.69” x 16.53”

I became more and more bold and daring with every piece. From the second day on, I decided not to turn on the light to view the result until the daylight of the next morning would reveal the outcome.

50

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Marina Ichikawa | through and through, 16.53” x 11.69”

This was the moment when I sometimes added some acrylic or ink paint.

T H E M AG I C O F E M B R AC I N G U N C E R TA I N T Y

51

Marina Ichikawa | harlequine, 16.53” x 11.69”

The painting below, separation, expresses a moment of self-separation I experienced on one of those days of blind painting.

52

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Marina Ichikawa | separation, 16.53” x 11.69”

T H E M AG I C O F E M B R AC I N G U N C E R TA I N T Y

53

The lessons learned are amazingly precious for me (still not exhaustive…to be continued): being patient and accepting all there is; every constraint opens up to a potential; the story line for an artwork is subconsciously there; intention can be counterproductive; the more constraint, the more depth, the more truth; too much exterior distraction (brain included) constrains my creative flow; where there is nothing (only dark and silence), there is even no place for fear (of being not enough); uncertainty is addictive; darkness, emptiness, nothingness are powerful grounds for creativity and enhance the spiritual connection; the miracle of the moment, when–without intention–something manifests without knowing what it is and which story it tells; one continuous line and one-stroke painting have a rhythm of their own. In the dark the sound of the crayons scratching is mesmerizing and inspires the flow of creation; the magic of the invisible… -Marina Ichikawa

54

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

6 - Creative Conversations The creative impulse is often subtle–and easily missed or dismissed. A conversation can spark a new direction in your art. It leads to something new by illuminating the adjacent possible. We’re continually absorbing information from our environment, including having conversations that can take us somewhere new. Metaphorically, we listen with one ear in the known and the other in the unknown. The world may not be “playing our song,” but it might be playing a song that sounds enough like our song to get our attention and draw us in. Logical inconsistency and contrast drives contemplation and reflection which drives creation. Something emerges from talking about art, looking at art, looking at nature, reading poetry– whatever it is. We want to cultivate a state of allowing new things, new experiences, new ideas to emerge.

Vignette: Dana Dion My work does not stay in the same place, and I do not want to “create a formula.” That is boring to me. It’s important to be able to evolve my work. I have a kind of animism in relationship to my paintings. Once started, they can have a will of their own. Not only do I sometimes want it to go a certain direction, but I feel that the artwork also has a direction it wants to go.

C R E AT I V E C O N V E R S AT I O N S

55

Dana Dion | Harvest Emotion, 36” x 48”

I create something, then I feel my creation has something it wants to tell me. A conversation and negotiation ensue. Sometimes I prevail, sometimes the painting wins. That is when I know when to stop. This is both rewarding and frustrating, but it’s worth it because it is such a high when it works. I like a little bit of the struggle. -Dana Dion

56

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

7 - The Paradoxical Language of Mistakes Creating in general and painting in particular is riddled with paradox. It combines contradictory features and qualities, and this makes it endlessly fascinating. Creativity is difficult but not too difficult. It occupies a sweet spot of challenge. It is reminiscent of the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis in ecology, a theory which states that ecosystems are the most rich and complex if they have a middling level of disturbance from the outside. If something is too easy, we lose interest. If it is impossible, we drop it. In the place between too difficult and too easy is a rich territory of challenge and reward. Something that is easy is literally “straightforward,” in that one proceeds stepwise without any exploring or backtracking. Something impossible means facing a huge and featureless unclimbable wall. But in between lies the territory of exploration, of backtracking, of what we often call “mistakes.” We can see this process by observing babies babbling, saying one word, then two words, then stringing words together, eventually arriving at grammatical, syntactical language. It takes a great deal of trial and error to learn something new. Perhaps we can hold the paradox of mistakes as the doorway through to another possibility, to innovation. Mistakes are one of several signs that we may actually be in a good place.

T H E PA R A D OX I C A L L A N G UAG E O F M I S TA K E S

57

Vignette: Nancy Hillis Is it a mistake, or is it the opening to innovation? Years ago, I studied sculpture. Most of my sculptures were clay pieces cast into Hydrocal (a commercial mixture of plaster of Paris and Portland cement) using an old Italian plaster cast method. I was fascinated by Michelangelo’s idea of releasing figures from stone. In contrast to building up figures in clay, he released them in a subtractive fashion with his chisel. I began my foray into carving sculptures with a piece of soapstone and a small chisel. In my mind, I envisioned carving an abstracted heart with a hole piercing through the center, akin to the pierced forms of the pioneering late British sculptor, Barbara Hepworth. The heart shape emerged. I continued chiseling, piercing the form, only to feel the sculpture crack into three pieces. I was crestfallen. But then, a thought emerged. What if this broken heart is a puzzle, with pieces that can be moved into various configurations? This brought a kinetic element to the static stone. What began as a mistake became the innovation that would not have emerged if I had not made that move with the chisel and if I had not recognized the beauty of that accident. This is an example of the adjacent possible. Mistakes may be the catalyst for innovation.

58

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Pierced sculptures emerged out of that experience. -Nancy Hillis

Nancy Hillis | Ankh, 9” x 5” x 3”

Nancy Hillis | Ankh, 9” x 5” x 3”

T H E PA R A D OX I C A L L A N G UAG E O F M I S TA K E S

59

Exploration: Embracing Mistakes & Failures Materials: Timer, sheet of paper or journal pages, marker, or pen Set the timer for 10 minutes. Begin writing in a stream of consciousness fashion, whatever comes to mind regarding your experience of mistakes or failures. What are your associations to mistakes? What experiences have felt like a mistake? Do you feel threatened by mistakes, or do you embrace them? What’s your biggest fear around “failure”? What would happen in your art if you ascribed to the idea of “no mistakes”?

60

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

8 - Is A Painting Ever Ruined? What does it mean to ruin something? The dictionary defines ruined as: Reduced to a state of decay, collapse, or disintegration. Having been irreparably damaged or harmed. I am not convinced a painting or work of art is ever truly ruined. It lives inside you. It is still there regardless of its external manifestation. Yes, even when you explore the concept from the “ruined” painting in a new artwork, it will be different–But the idea, the impulse, the inspiration is still there. You can express it. It is never completely lost. That said, there are some exceptions. The Colossus at Rhodes fell in an earthquake in 226 B.C. In 653 A.D. an invading army melted the bronze sculpture and sold off the remaining metal. It no longer exists in its original form. We have its memory, which has inspired artists to recreate it. People still aspire to build a modern Colossus.

A Story of a “Ruined” Painting A student was convinced she had ruined a painting. She loved the painting and kept working on it. At one point, she felt she had gone too far and lost

IS A PAINTING EVER RUINED?

61

the freshness and immediacy she craved in her work. The reality is there is an infinity of stopping places in a painting. It is up to you as the artist, the composer, the author to decide when to stop on that particular painting. Sometimes you take a painting too far and feel you have ruined it. You may be able to salvage the work. On the other hand, even if you never love that painting, it is still valuable. You will not love every painting you create, but every single painting counts in your development, even the ones you do not like. Take heart and continually search for and find your own expression.

Vignette: Kay Hunt This exploration started with a partially finished painting that I really didn’t like.

62

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Kay Hunt | Partially Finished Painting, 48” x 60”

After looking at it for months, I decided to paint over it.

IS A PAINTING EVER RUINED?

63

Kay Hunt | Going Back into The Painting, 48” x 60”

Another image shows that progression.

Kay Hunt | Adding more colors, 48” x 60”

64

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I wasn’t thinking at all about the colors I was using or the composition or anything else. I was just trying to get the original painting covered up. It’s a big painting, 48” x 60”, so it took a while. Once I got far enough along covering up the original painting seen below, I knew I wanted to reserve some of the underpainting so it would show through in the final painting.

Kay Hunt | More layers, 48” x 60”

IS A PAINTING EVER RUINED?

65

So, I chose to use small strips of tape, 1/2 inch or 1/4 inch wide by random lengths.

Kay Hunt | Small strips of tape, 48” x 60”

Once I taped off all the areas I wanted to preserve, I began painting over the entire canvas with some off-white and taupe paints. Once everything was covered, I pulled off all the pieces of tape so I could see where things stood and if I liked what was going on. Here’s an up-close detail of the result.

66

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Kay Hunt | Tape removed, 48” x 60”

Then I began to make bolder strokes to hopefully get a stronger image.

IS A PAINTING EVER RUINED?

67

Kay Hunt | Untitled 101, 48” x 60”

Here’s the final painting, Untitled 101.

68

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I think it’s interesting–playful, whimsical, but nothing like what I had in mind when I started. I don’t think it’s a bad painting, but I also don’t know that I want to leave it at this. I wanted something that felt much bolder and stronger, that made a big impact. I’m not sure this painting does that. In retrospect, I wish I had used bigger, longer pieces of tape to create larger shapes for the reserved areas. That would have taken things in an entirely different direction. So, this may end up being just necessary steps towards yet another painting. Who knows what’s next–I’ll have to see! -Kay Hunt

Exploration: Ruined Works Gather up paintings you deem ruined. Create a solo exhibition of Ruined Works. Photograph the exhibition and write a summary in your art journal, as if it were a press release. You might create a looping slideshow of your exhibition and display it in your studio. How will you exhibit your works? What will you say in your press release? What aha moments, observations, or revelations emerge from this experience? How do you feel about the exhibition? Will you go back into some of the paintings or leave them as they are? Write about this in your art journal. IS A PAINTING EVER RUINED?

69

9-P  ainting Is a Mirror I write pictures, like others–autobiographies. Completed or not, they are the pages of my diary and in this sense are valuable. Pablo Picasso

Like Picasso, your paintings can be your personal journal or diary. Painting is a mirror. It reflects your life. Like a mirror, keep your journal where you can see it, whatever form it takes. Your art journal can be anything you want and is ever evolving. In addition to your “geological record” of paintings, it can be an actual journal, pieces of paper, or an electronic visual record of your artistic journey and your creations. It is a vehicle to catalog and document your reflections, observations, aha moments, struggles, ideas, explorations, and experiments. You define what your journal is, there is no right way to do it except that which works for you. Try it and see where it takes you.

70

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Vignette: Karen Sparks I never heard of the ‘adjacent possible’ before joining Nancy’s art class–her Studio Journey Masterclass. I also did not hear about embracing ugly art or allowing myself many starts. I did not know much about colour combinations or working in a series either. There have been so many ways that Nancy’s class has assisted me in beginning to develop further as an artist. I now value my own unique process and am listening more to my own inner guidance by coming to see that the adjacent possible is there, available to all of us always–even if we may not know it is. The adjacent possible is always available in my studio now! Here is an example of how the ‘adjacent possible’ came into my life and how working with Nancy has assisted me in seeing it more clearly, appreciating it, and even inviting it into my studio every time I work. The artwork I am about to show you was created by me during the second year of my journey as an artist and prior to meeting Nancy. In a class I was in, I was asked to bring in some sort of inspiration to work from. I had experienced some challenging times with a lot of death in my family and other traumatic experiences. I was very close to my grandmother, and hers was the second of several deaths in my family in a short period of time. I missed her very much, as she used to comfort me growing up and we were very close. I chose to use a picture she kept on her bedroom dresser, and it was something I later realized has remained a potent image for me. It is a religious painting called Agony in the Garden.

PAINTING IS A MIRROR

71

By Carl Bloch - http://freechristimages.org and Sidsel Maria Søndergård, Gerd Rathje, Jens Toft, Carl Bloch 1834 -1890, ISBN 978-87-987465-9-1 p. 313, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7866359

Ever since my grandmother died, this painting was something I often gazed upon. Over time, I began to see some interesting connections in it to other things I had studied over the years. My first attempt to paint it was perhaps a bit of an abstract expressionistic style. I was working with symbols of light and dark, spiritual, and material.

72

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Karen Sparks | My First Attempt, 18” x 24”

Painting it, I experienced a variety of feelings and ended up being very comforted by it. I found myself deeply moved and felt like I was not quite done with this image. So, I decided to do another painting and just start using up the colours I had on a palette without too much thinking. I held the idea loosely in my mind and simply let go. This ended up much more abstract and really surprised me. It surprised me because I still felt this element of deep comfort and spiritual guidance coming from it, but it was very different.

PAINTING IS A MIRROR

73

Karen Sparks | My second attempt, 24” x 12”

I was also surprised that when I turned it sideways, it was a whole new painting with a similar feel, but different too.

Karen Sparks | My second attempt, on its side, 12” x 24”

74

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I still felt I wasn’t done with this image, and so I did more. The third painting used similar colors, but really simplified and spoke to me of the comfort a mother can give a child.

Karen Sparks | Third painting, 16” x 20”

PAINTING IS A MIRROR

75

The fourth painting was an idea emerging from the previous painting that represents two soul mates comforting each other. So, this whole idea around comfort and spiritual connection began to shift and inspire me to paint other related things around that theme.

Karen Sparks | Fourth painting, 16” x 20”

In the end, I realized the journey was all about comfort during difficult times as well the love people can share with one another during such times.

76

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I had no idea what I was doing, and did not give it much thought–nor did I experience this again until I met Nancy and learned that this was a ‘thing’ I could actually work with directly in my art. It was 3 years later that I signed up for Nancy’s class and told this story when she talked about the adjacent possible. I was so excited! She said, “Yes, that’s an example of the adjacent possible.” Suddenly, in that moment, it was like a huge door had been opened for me. Ever since then, I find that I am ‘leaving the door open’ for these types of experiences to enter my work in the studio. During Nancy’s course, I was working through the grief I was experiencing, focusing on the lessons, making art, and learning to embrace things like the ‘Big Ugly Painting.’ This was a true gift for me at this time, as it gave me permission to go into my studio and just let out whatever was there inside me–out onto the canvas or paper. My art began to shift, and I was shifting on the inside too. I began to heal from my grief and reconnect to the adjacent possible in my life every day. These lessons are applicable to life! Working through Nancy’s course has assisted me in seeing the adjacent possible in my work and embracing it. With other tools like ‘many starts,’ ‘working with colour’, ‘working in a series,’ ‘constraint’, etc., I now have been taught valuable lessons and have given myself ‘permission’ to experiment and explore. Nancy creates an inspiring, supportive, and non-judgmental environment in which exploring the adjacent possible in one’s art and life is always possible. -Karen Sparks

PAINTING IS A MIRROR

77

Exploration: Create a ‘journal’ of paintings cataloging your life Bring together a grouping of paintings that reflect your life. It could be from various stages on your journey. It could be a series of recent works that are closely related and strongly express your current experience. Take a photo of your ‘journal’ of paintings. Add this to your art journal.

78

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

10 - Leitmotifs According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, a leitmotif is a short, recurring musical phrase. The use of the term didn’t become common until Richard Wagner used it in describing his operas, but the idea of associating musical snippets with characters or moods predates him by centuries. The idea is not limited to music. More generally, it pertains to themes that thread through one’s art and life. Making leitmotifs apparent is a powerful tool in the process of creativity.

Vignette: Bruce Sawhill Bruce Sawhill is a musician, physicist, mathematician, writer, and composer. He created a mind map and noticed a theme of water, music, math, acoustics, and time threading through his life. He is an elite swimmer, built a sailboat by hand named Dulcinea at age 16, plays the organ (the organ was originally called the hydraulus, because it was powered by water compressing air), and loves water in all forms. He has composed music based on water sounds and is intrigued by the phenomenon of being able to hear almost any sound within the sound of rushing water. The theme of time has threaded through his life in various forms: music is something that

LEITMOTIFS

79

happens in time, swimming competitions are timed, and a fascination for rivers which flow, like time, in one direction. And time remains one of the great mysteries of physics, a dimension that is unlike any other dimension.

Exploration: My “Big Why” Mind Map One way to get at meaning and your Big Why is to create a mind map. This is a variation on the theme we explored in Chapter 3 with Your Inner Journey Mind Map. Now, we’re exploring from the lens of your Big Why of what is most meaningful to you. Start with a blank piece of paper. Write down whatever you’re exploring at the center of the page–your central idea–it can be you, a book, a feeling, a person, an activity, an idea, a word, or anything else you want to explore. The mind map exercise is a means to give form to free association. Notice what comes to mind as you explore your central idea. Draw lines between concepts that evoke other concepts. The act of doing this can illuminate connections that were formerly unrealized. A musical leitmotif is an example of one of these linkages. For example, if you’re exploring you and your Big Why, place your name in the center of a sheet of paper or poster board. You might write about: music that moves you books, poetry, or stories you love

80

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

memorable experiences from your life athletic events or sports you enjoy jobs you’ve held travel nature dreams food childhood Look for patterns and common threads woven through your life. This will give you clues about what matters to you. This powerful exploration will help you find recurrent themes in your art and life.

LEITMOTIFS

81

11 - Refusing the Refusal In Section I we discussed the Hero’s Journey as a general form of growth and evolution in one’s life and creations. Part of the format of the Hero’s Journey is the idea of the refusal. When we are considering a new adventure, a new challenge, there is a point in time when it all seems too much, too inconvenient, too expensive, too difficult. It’s easier to keep doing whatever you were doing before; however, upon reflection, it is not gratifying. The fact that we were considering a new path means we were dissatisfied with the status quo, consciously or unconsciously. This can be uncomfortable, and we say to ourselves: Maybe I’ll think about it tomorrow.

What does refusal look like to you? Perhaps refusal is a vital part of the process of getting to autonomy–like a toddler saying NO! a staggering number of times. Developmentally, this is important–the ability to refuse, to say no, to resist. Perhaps when we have the space to say NO, we can finally give ourselves permission to say YES. What if we amplified this refusal, this dark side, this “shadow” we want to avoid? What would it look like if you expressed your refusal in paint, writing, poetry, music, dance, film, choreography, movement?

82

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Vignette: Sandra Felemovicius When I was 18, I traveled to Florence, Italy for 6 months and had a complete immersion in art. I felt, This is what I want to do forever. I didn’t know how, but I knew it made my heart jump. I returned to Mexico City and went into Business Administration. I hated it. I got married at 20 and we moved to Minneapolis for my husband’s surgical residency, and I enrolled in the Minneapolis School of Art and Design. These were crazy years of isolation and loneliness, and we only had a mattress on the floor. The art degree was utterly unemployable. So, I got a background in drafting to pay the bills. Eventually we could afford to rent an art studio. Finally, I had my own space, and that was empowering. I was validated. My artistic life was up to me. I was free to create. I had to pay the rent and was determined to pay it with revenue from my art. It took 10 years until I felt acknowledged as a nonobjective artist. At first, I painted anything people would pay for–like flowers and landscapes. But after a while I found my own rhythm, language, and validation. I didn’t need external validation anymore. As an immigrant, painting grounded me. Before, I always felt I didn’t belong. But painting gave me freedom from judgment. Nobody would look at my paintings and say, Where are you from? or You have an accent. My Russian and Polish grandparents tried to come to New York City. Ellis Island was closed at the time because of overcrowding. Immigration ships ended up in Veracruz, Mexico. Then my family

REFUSING THE REFUSAL

83

moved to Mexico City and Guadalajara. It’s amazing how a fluke like an overloaded port of entry can determine many lives for generations. In retrospect, a pivotal moment came when I decided to treat my career as a profession, not a hobby.

Sandra Felemovicius | New Smyrna, 56” x 56”

Experimenting with linear shapes in New Smyrna informed further exploration in The Blue Windows series.

84

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Sandra Felemovicius | Blue Windows, 55” x 66”

Three years ago, I investigated geometrical and linear forms. Scratching into the surface and adding layers fascinated me. I might revisit this exploration of the surface history in my paintings soon.

REFUSING THE REFUSAL

85

Sandra Felemovicius | Breathtaking, 55” x 62”

Before long, I switched to a more organic style.

Sandra Felemovicius | Fresh Air, 51” x 63”

86

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I needed the freedom to explore and move my body…

Sandra Felemovicius | La Vida De Color de Rosa, 47” x 46”

…and not be so methodical and constrained if that makes sense.

REFUSING THE REFUSAL

87

Sandra Felemovicius | Organized Chaos, 40” x 30”

I love getting in touch with the rhythms of my body…

88

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Sandra Felemovicius | Dancing Horses I, 48” x 60”

…and explore my personal gestural expression. I learned that I had the passion and will to do it. I knew what I wanted by the age of 18, but it took many years to see it through. I refused to give up. -Sandra Felemovicius

REFUSING THE REFUSAL

89

Exploration: Saying NO To the Refusal What does the refusal look like in your life? Reflect on times when you said No to your dreams. Write about it. How do you get to yes? How do you refuse the refusal? What does it mean to you? What would it look like if you expressed your refusal in paint, writing, poetry, music, dance, film, choreography, movement?

90

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

12 - Standing in Your Own Two Feet Be yourself. Everybody else is already taken. Oscar Wilde

What does it mean to “be yourself” in the context of artistic creativity? It means to accept where you are in your creative journey, to acknowledge and embrace your predicaments, your fears, your ambitions. It means to not apologize for your creative being, particularly to yourself. It means to root out the language of comparison not only in your speech, but in your thoughts. Since thoughts are unruly things and often don’t obey anyone, you need to train yourself to recognize when self-limiting thoughts show up. At that point a ritual of recognition can be valuable–stomp each of your feet, write the thought down on a scrap of paper, and crumple it up–or burn it.

The Importance of Holding onto Yourself as An Artist An artist in one of my workshops tells the story of creating a wondrous painting and yet being asked by another artist why she added scribbles to it. The implication being that scribbles bothered the inquiring artist.

S TA N D I N G I N YO U R O W N T W O F E E T

91

Our fellow journeyer also recalls being asked by a gallerist why she had smudges in her painting and to please remove them. Her answer to both: Because it creates interest. Bingo!

The Important Concept of Authorship As an artist and creator of abstract art, it’s important to remember that you are the author, artist, and composer of your work. Not the collector. Not your best friend. Not the gallerist. This is not painting by committee. This is not about pleasing others. This is about your own expression. We want to see YOU in your art, not someone else’s idea of what you should or shouldn’t do. At times you may feel lonely and lost because there are no absolute answers on your journey towards expressing yourself. There’s no map, formula, or recipe for creating your deepest and most authentic art.

92

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Indeed, you’re stepping into the terra incognita, the unknown territory, every time you create. And this is scary. This is threatening. This is vulnerable. Don’t look for answers outside of yourself. You won’t find them there. Look Inside The answers that are your answers can only be found inside of you. Keep searching and finding your way as you paint Keep exploring and experimenting Keep allowing space for “ugly” paintings You never know when an “ugly” painting may be the nascent form of emerging work trying to be born that will knock your socks off. In the end it’s about holding onto yourself in your art. It’s about digging deep and finding YOU. Your work isn’t contingent upon what others think. It’s not about extrinsic validation. You have your own life and vision, and you did not come here to relinquish it to the pleasures or whims of others. You are here to be yourself and your art is an expression of you–what you love, feel, notice, and want to explore. Not everyone is going to love your paintings. You’re not going to love all your paintings either, but there are valuable lessons in them.

S TA N D I N G I N YO U R O W N T W O F E E T

93

The question is: Do you love your own exploration in your art? I’m reminded of a story of a child who was playing and was asked by an adult: Why are you doing that? The child looked quizzically at the questioner and finally answered: Because I want to.

Will you allow yourself to deeply explore, experiment, and create what’s inside of you? Will you: Step into the perils of creating and go ahead anyway? Take big risks and let yourself create exploratory works, some of which you love and others you don’t like at all? Express your truth in your art? This is the journey we’re on. It’s paradoxically vulnerable and perilous and yet wondrous and meaningful. You want to explore the mystery of you–your life, your expression, your dreams. All you need is the encouragement, inspiration, and guidance to step into creating your deepest work.

94

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Vignette: Kay Hunt I first got drawn into Nancy’s courses when I saw her in a video on activating the canvas. I felt like I had come home, and I was hooked! I went from taking the Studio Journey class to taking the Studio Journey Masterclass. While I started off going gangbusters, I soon found I couldn’t sustain the suggestions to create a lot of starts as well as do maquettes and art journaling on a regular basis–it just wasn’t working for me. Of course, I immediately felt like there was something wrong with me and that I was doing it all wrong. Even reminding myself that I’m an introvert who gets easily overwhelmed when too much information is coming at me at once, I still felt I was somehow broken. Another one of the precepts that Nancy emphasizes is to “Trust yourself.” This was a huge boost to me and something I need to hear often. When I first began to consciously think about it as I was doing my art, I felt like it really pertained to trusting the kinds of marks I wanted to make and the colors I chose, and, of course, that’s an important piece of it.

S TA N D I N G I N YO U R O W N T W O F E E T

95

Kay Hunt | Nearly Neutral, 48” x 36”

But more recently it dawned on me that it goes much deeper than that. I realized I could apply “trusting myself” to the bigger picture–my entire art practice.

96

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Kay Hunt | And Then the Conversation Fell Apart, 48” x 48”

In other words, however I was doing it is right for me and I can trust I’m getting what I need from it.

S TA N D I N G I N YO U R O W N T W O F E E T

97

Kay Hunt | After the Storm, 36” x 42”

I’m not missing anything, and I’m not broken! What a huge insight and one that feels so freeing. I still haven’t taken it in completely. I’m not sure I would have come to that realization without going through my frustrations about not doing things right. So, thank you, Nancy, for providing the structure, the guidance, the support, and a safe space to make this amazing journey. What a gift! -Kay Hunt

98

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

13 - What You’re Afraid of Is Where the Juice Is In Chapter 2, we discussed the liminal state, an existential state of poised instability, standing on the threshold of the known and unknown, filling the doorway of your thoughts with the bulk of your being. This is an uncomfortable place to be for most people. We generally don’t linger in doorways. But this is also the place that contrasts the familiar with the new and is the cusp of the Adjacent Possible. It frames the form of the new with the architecture of the familiar. Learning to be comfortable here is a powerful skill to learn. It is where creativity lives, and once you recognize this fact, the desire to cultivate this liminal state will grow and become familiar.

Vignette: Elizabeth Vander Schaaf Minimalist Paintings - Are They Enough? I think it was my second year of painting when I hung three pristine sheets of heavy watercolor paper on the wall and then felt paralyzed for days, unsure about to do, afraid of destroying the high-quality paper. Once I relaxed into the fear, I was in the mood to make some bold gestures with black paint and see where it might lead. I loaded the brush, let my arm fly, and felt excited seeing the white page transform in an instant.

W H AT YO U ’ R E A F R A I D O F I S W H E R E T H E J U I C E I S

99

I told myself, Don’t think, do it again, and again. I stood back and saw the three papers, each with one or two interesting, bold marks with little drips forming. They made me smile.

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Forever, 18” x 24” each

100

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

After letting them dry, I decided to let them be, not knowing if I might go back into them one day. For years, they remained in a pile of starts, and for years, every time I revisited them, I liked them as they were. My inner voice wondered, Are they enough? My heart replied, I like them just like this–spare, raw, and bold. They were the only starts that remained untouched, untorn, unmarked, unrepurposed, undestroyed. They were unlike much of my other work, which was layered and colorful. A little battle went on. My heart won. Later, an art lover in Princeton bought the paintings. They were hard to let go of because of what they taught me. Sometimes we don’t think we are enough, and we wonder if our work is enough. We are and it is. -Elizabeth Vander Schaaf

W H AT YO U ’ R E A F R A I D O F I S W H E R E T H E J U I C E I S

101

14 - Through the Unknown Gate We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. Through the unknown, unremembered gate

T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding, excerpted, The Four Quartets

The subject of doorways, thresholds, and boundaries is woven throughout this book. Passageways facilitate transformations, and a creative life is one that cultivates awareness of transitions and transformations and uses them as a rich source of inspiration. By walking through a doorway, we move into a new place, one with more room to explore and create. By being aware of portals to new perceptions you are making room to let something new into your life. You never know when and where a door might open.

102

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Vignette: Dana Dion I was always creative. As a child I was into dance and playing piano. But I never found what I really liked, and, for a while, I hopped around between different creative modes. None hooked me until I found painting. It was a circuitous journey. For 12 years I owned and ran three gyms in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. The gyms were unconventional. They had amazing music, creative decor, and a nightclub vibe. After I sold the gyms, I started doing art classes: watercolour, sculpture, oil painting, pastels. I also refinished furniture and painted walls in unconventional finishes. Painting walls made me realise I loved this form of expression. It gave me freedom and wholebody movement, a physically active process resonating with my passion as a gym and dance instructor. I got a solid workout as I painted and enjoyed it so much that I began asking people if they had spare walls to paint. You must have room in your life to let painting in. After moving to Australia, I had a window of opportunity to think about myself. I went to a painting mentor who was hands-on and practical, and, importantly, believed in me. He made me think–Maybe I should paint more than just available walls. It’s very important to have someone who believes in you, someone knowledgeable. One day I went to an art gallery with a friend and my friend suggested I enter an art prize competition run by the gallery. I did and won! That was a turning point. I took painting seriously after that. -Dana Dion

T H R O U G H T H E U N K N O W N GAT E

103

Dana Dion | New Day, 54” x 70”

104

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

15 - Allowing One gray winter day I was riveted by the squiggles of marks, slashes, and fields of color on the cover of a book in a museum bookstore. It was at the Momentary, a decommissioned cheese factory turned contemporary art venue–satellite to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The book was: Sarah Cain: The Imaginary Architecture of Love. I had to have it, if only for its scrumptious cover. Pretty soon, my heart quickened as I thumbed through pages pulsing with riotous color, explosive marks, a graphic language of sprays and bursting splatters, and miles of drips on large canvasses connecting across the exhibition space in a monumental fashion. Wild gestural scrawls spill over the entire assemblage of paintings. Quotidian materials appear– Stacked wood planks attached with twine become incorporated into two canvasses, tethering them into a whole. Painted gift bows dot one canvas in a rhythmic pattern. There is a sense of urgency and forceful, kinetic energy vibrating off the pages. Even with this wild organic expressiveness, there is an underlying armature, an architecture, threading through the works–Large double X’s, circles, squares, and rectangles punctuate the paintings and serve as scaffolding. This book is a visual sermon on radical self-acceptance and allowing of the creative impulse. Stream of consciousness mark making, and unconscious elements bubble up to find expression. Upon returning to California, I showed the book to artists in my masterclass who marveled at the enormous sense of daring and radical permission Sarah Cain exemplifies. This led to a potent

ALLOWING

105

discussion on allowing and trusting yourself in your own experimentation and expression. Creative nudges can be subtle and easily missed or dismissed. Notice when you are called–when something jumps into your consciousness and says: Try this. This is fertile ground for exploration and experimentation. Allow your imagination to run through fields of possibilities. The thing that is calling you might seem strange, mundane, or irrelevant–like Sarah Cain’s incorporation of gift bows on some of her canvasses–but something whispers in your ear and will not be silenced. This is the call to wield your paintbrush and palette like a sword and shield and set out on your hero’s journey, accessing the adjacent possible as you go.

Vignette: Elizabeth Vander Schaaf Allowing - A Gift of Freedom Allowing has become a favorite word, a mantra of sorts. Saying the word feels energetic, expressive, rhythmic. It feels active, propelling me forward. Allowing means freedom from rules, freedom from pressure to find my style, freedom to explore without focusing on outcomes, and, ultimately, freedom to develop the varied art practice I love. Allowing gives me permission to follow my heart. Paintings on paper or canvas, maquettes, handmade art books and sketchbooks, collage with painted papers, small works, and starts that sometimes rest for years before I feel ready to go back into them or call them done, all weave together, each thread informing the others.

106

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Once I might have felt all over the place. Now I feel true. -Elizabeth Vander Schaaf

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Tell Me More, 12”x 12”

breaking rules, using saturated colors with little value contrast

ALLOWING

107

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Ugly/Interesting, 24”x 18”

exploring without focus on outcomes in this painting start

108

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Small Work, 5”x 8”

practicing bold marks on notebook paper, then going back in a year later

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Small Work, 4”x 6”

playing with bold colors and delicate handwriting

ALLOWING

109

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Woman in The Window, 8”x 6”

from Woman in The Window series- a collection of 30 sculptural collages, celebrating women pursuing their passions during the pandemic

110

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Sketchbook Study, 7”x 5”

exploring figures in an old book

ALLOWING

111

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | A Start, 17”x 14” (Before)

experimenting without focus on outcomes, a black and white start

112

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Do You See What I See, 17”x 14” (After)

going back in a few times, gently, preserving the black marks

ALLOWING

113

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Maquettes, 24”x 20”

painting maquettes on paper that already had some gentle marks and staining from serving as a painting mat

114

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Reflection: Allowing What does the word allowing mean to you? How will your art (and life) change if you invite a sense of allowing into your life? Write about this in your journal.

ALLOWING

115

Section II: Start

16 - Introduction One never knows what one is going to do. One starts a painting and then it becomes something quite else. It is remarkable how little the ‘willing’ of the artist intervenes. Pablo Picasso

It seems the importance of starting should be obvious, since nothing proceeds without starting. But this assertion of obviousness is like the story of the math professor who, when asked about a step in a mathematical proof, said, It’s obvious. A moment later he said, At least, I think it’s obvious. Then he disappeared into a room at the back of the lecture hall and didn’t come out for half an hour. He emerged and said: Yes, it’s obvious. I have discovered, in the process of writing, that it is easier to edit something than nothing. Furthermore, it doesn’t matter terribly much what that something is. It can be a good approximation to the final result, or it can be close to totally irrelevant. It is like the microscopic dust particles that can seed hailstones or the surface imperfections in glass that can produce champagne bubbles or the grain of sand creating a pearl, a process called nucleation. The result can look quite different than the inciting event. It is evident that art doesn’t get created unless you start. The real challenge is to get good at starting, to train or spoof or coax yourself into that first move until it comes easily. In this section we explore the nature of starting and we do this through stories, discussion, reflections, and explorations.

INTRODUCTION

117

17 - Zero to One To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour

William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

The world of math and the universe of poetic creativity make surprising bedfellows in William Blake’s poem. There is a special kinship between the truths expressed in this poem and the mathematical concept of zero to one, a concept from mathematics that tells us that zero to one is the largest interval mathematically. From 0 (nothing) to 1 (something) is larger than the interval between 1 (something) to 2 (something), 2 to 3, 3 to 4, and so forth. Going from nothing to something is larger than going from something to something.

118

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Not only that, but there are infinite numbers between zero and one! How can there be infinite numbers in a finite interval, to “hold infinity in the palm of your hand?” It seems that Blake intuited the infinity within a discrete interval when he said “Eternity in an hour.” Infinity is a strange beast with non-intuitive properties, but we can illuminate our assertion about zero to one by doing what mathematicians call a mapping–drawing a line between any number on the zero to one interval to a matching “partner” number on the one to infinity interval. We do this by dividing the small number into one, which gives us a number greater than one. The closer we get to zero, the further out the partner gets. You have infinity in the palm of your hand so long as you START. Zero represents infinite possibility but not reality until you begin. As soon as you move away from zero you move into actualization.

Vignette: Kathryn Deiss One day I was in my studio, and nothing seemed to be happening. I was awkwardly pushing watercolor and other media around and felt somewhat frustrated that I couldn’t find a groove. Finally, I turned around and opened my supply closet–mostly out of distraction–not with any specific purpose. The first thing my eyes landed on was the edge of a package of solar exposure paper hidden under a stack of sketch books that I hadn’t used in a long time.

ZERO TO ONE

119

I was suddenly wild with excitement and couldn’t stop myself from grabbing it and some small rubber and plastic toys, my tiny tin biplane, and some stones, weeds, and seed heads and running outside to create compositions to see what would happen. Within a half hour I had images on the blue paper drying on paper towels. My heart was racing and the hair on my arms stood up! I was sooo excited!

Kathryn Deiss | Solar Paper with Seed Heads and Animals, 12” x 8”

The images were so interesting to me and the excitement I felt was from pure surprise. It was as if I didn’t do it–like this paper appeared at an interesting moment and things just rolled and happened.

120

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Kathryn Deiss | Soaring- Solar Blue, 8” x 12”

A few days later I created a large artwork that took its inspiration from one of the solar paper works.

ZERO TO ONE

121

Kathryn Deiss | Red Biplane, 22.5” x 28”

I really feel this was an Adjacent Possible occurrence: that paper which I had not looked at or used for quite some time suddenly presented itself and the connections went from there. In fact, just finding the paper seemed like a zero to one situation! A situation where alternative possibilities opened up within a few seconds! -Kathryn Deiss

122

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

18 - You Can Start Anywhere In Chapter 16, we discussed the somewhat arbitrary nature of starting. What does that mean in a practical sense? It is important to be open to potential creative catalysts, like the sand in an oyster starting the assemblage of a pearl. And, like a grain of sand to an oyster, the impetus may be irritating. These catalysts can be overtly artistic, like creating marks on a canvas or improvising on the piano and recording it. But they can also come from entirely different mediums and genres.

A Theme Song for Starting Lorraine Willis tells a story of how music evoked feelings that led her somewhere new in her art. Initially Lorraine didn’t show the work to anyone because it was so different from anything she has done before.

YO U C A N S TA R T A N Y W H E R E

123

Vignette: Lorraine Willis You can start anywhere–Hollow Talk I never know when inspiration is going to hit, it just does, and then I feel compelled to paint–simple. My husband Steve and I got addicted to a crime series called The Bridge. It was a Swedish/Danish production with English subtitles. The characters and plot were compelling, but it was the soundtrack–the music and lyrics–that made my hair stand on end and sent me scurrying into the studio. You can find Hollow Talk by the Choir of the Unbelievers online, please have a listen. This series was so different from anything I had ever done. The music as much as the lyrics inspired these paintings. Raw, soul searching, and full of strong emotion. The work felt raw and emotional, and I created a series of 5 pieces with stark, graffiti elements– how did that happen? Scary and exciting at the same time–well outside my comfort zone–no blue in sight. Anyway, I was thrilled when the feedback came in and was so positive. I have sold 4 out of the 5 paintings and whilst I was delighted to do so, I sort of miss them in the studio! -Lorraine Willis

124

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Lorraine Willis | Hollow Talk, 39.4” x 39.4”

Exploration: Creative Impulses This is about noticing creative impulses–noticing things in your environment that intrigue you and then taking them further, into exploration. What do you notice? What will you create?

YO U C A N S TA R T A N Y W H E R E

125

19 - More Starts, Fewer Finishes One way to explore The Adjacent Possible is by creating lots of starts and going into the starts, responding to the marks you made and seeing what emerges, what possibilities emerge as you make moves on the starts. The secret power of lots of starts is detachment. Each piece becomes less important overall, freeing one from fixation and attachment. This allows more creative risk and “rolls the dice” a larger number of times for creating something surprising. This has echoes of Anders Ericsson’s concept of “10,000 Hours,” popularized by Malcolm Gladwell, specifically the amount of practice required to become expert at something. But thousands of hours or starts by themselves are not enough. One must be conscious of the process and the lessons being learned. This translates into a focus on process instead of outcome, which may require some “re-wiring” of one’s thought processes. When you create lots of starts and lots of paintings, focusing on the process allows you to access The Adjacent Possible. The more you get in there, the more you’re going to see that as you make a move, it opens up something unpredictable. Pay attention or you might miss it! Mindfulness matters. When we first come to art, we tend to think we need a strategy–that we need to plan out the painting. We have some idea of what it’s going to look like ahead of time. You look at the landscape and you may want to replicate it. You compose it by removing some elements and adding others and bringing your own particular expressiveness and lexicon into the work.

126

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

But in the beginning, you’re trying to replicate what you observe. If you decide to move from re-creation to creation, the hero’s journey awaits you. The artist’s secret weapon is lots of starts, eyes wide open.

Vignette: James Edward I think it’s important to experiment and to make a lot of starts. It should be fun. Most of the works here are digital paintings mixed with photographs and acrylic, ink, spray paint, and other materials on paper.

James Edward | Start #1

M O R E S TA R T S , F E W E R F I N I S H E S

127

I work with a lot of tools–charcoals, acrylic paints, colors, brushes. I make some tools on my own. You must have a lot of tools. I also think you must have a lot of surfaces to paint on–canvas, paper, cardboard, wood, gypsum– anything goes. I have some paintings on marbles–I break a slab of marble and glue it back together a different way and then paint it. It’s interesting–I think what happens with these tools, paints, and mediums is you eventually find the process you like the most. You find a process you have fun with.

James Edward | Start #2

128

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

The moment to stop is when you’re not having fun anymore. You can stop that painting and go on to another and come back to it later.

James Edward | Start #3

I think paintings are like pictures of yourself. They’re from your unconscious, they’re photographs of your consciousness at a certain time.

M O R E S TA R T S , F E W E R F I N I S H E S

129

If you compare these paintings to photographs of yourself, you look at the painting and say, Ah, I should’ve gotten a haircut over here. I was kind of fat over there. I should have gone to the beach and gotten a tan. Whatever, you know? And then you can change these little things–this happens to me all the time–I change a little thing that makes a difference in the end. It looks much better and that’s a process I enjoy. I think it’s important to have all kinds of tools, mix them up, and find your process. Once you find your process, it’s done. Then keep going until you find another process. I like to do different stuff.

James Edward | Experiment #1

So, what happens when I like a process is I create 40, 60, 80, 100 paintings in that process.

130

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

James Edward | Experiment #2

I like to experiment. So, then I move on to another process and try to find, in the end, something that will make me have fun.

M O R E S TA R T S , F E W E R F I N I S H E S

131

James Edward | Experiment #4

It’s a series with a process. Then you go on to a series with another process. It’s the whole deal. And one thing is you never have to think of the outcome. You just keep on going until you stop.

132

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Because let me give you a parallel–I got cancer and had my lung operated on two years ago. I’ve been doing chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, and all these therapies that will extend my life, but I don’t think about death. I don’t think about the outcome. I just think of what’s going on right now, what can I do best for me right now. I think in a painting, it’s the same outlook–you can’t look at what’s going to happen. You can’t look for the end. You have to enjoy the ride. It’s that process–be in it, be present, and stay in it. Don’t think. And don’t think about what others might think. I think that’s important. Just go with whatever is going on for you. If you don’t like it, who’s going to like it? When you look at your painting, you understand it better than anybody else. Just like those photographs we talked about earlier. You see yourself at different times in those photos. You think, Yeah, I could have maybe shaved myself here or had a new haircut there. I’ve had experiences of looking at a photo of myself, we’ve all had that experience- looking at a photograph and thinking: Oh, look how young I was. The great thing about paintings is you can go in and change the things you don’t like. It’s about experimentation and staying open to doing different stuff. The painting speaks to me, and I listen. There are many artists whose work is identifiable and sometimes it seems they’ve found a solution they just keep repeating. I don’t find this appealing. I think that must be kind of boring because I look at this, and I think This guy must have done this a hundred times, just with different colors.

M O R E S TA R T S , F E W E R F I N I S H E S

133

I think it’s a matter of loving to paint and enjoying the process. I’ll see these paintings from Rembrandt–he must have loved the process of making all those little paintings–and Da Vinci also, to take three, four years to make a painting. They must have enjoyed this, I suppose. Same thing with us. The result may or may not be fantastic, but I think the pleasure is the same for everybody and that’s the key, isn’t it? -James Edward

Exploration: Lots of Starts Create 3 - 20 stream of consciousness starts. When you are done, look at your starts. Lay them on the floor or attach them to a wall. Choose 1 - 3 to work up further. As you look at your starts, notice what comes up for you. Does the painting speak to you? Does it suggest something–a certain move, color, or mark? Consider living with your starts for a few days, weeks, months, or years and see how you feel about them over time. If there’s something that bothers you about the painting, you may decide to knock that back by covering or veiling. Or you may decide to emphasize a mark or shape and reactivate the canvas. As you respond to your starts, you open possibilities rather than crystallizing too early. This is another way we access The Adjacent Possible.

134

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

20 - The Six Maquette Exercise The Six Maquette Exercise we developed for abstract painting is an exercise with its origins in sculpture. Henry Moore was famous for creating lots of small clay maquettes, or little studies, to play with ideas for his process of creating monumental sculptures. When Nancy finished her medical residency and fellowship in psychiatry, she studied sculpture with Adrienne Duncan, arriving at her studio with an open mind, no knowledge of sculpture, and 25 pounds of clay. Creating maquettes in sculpture was a kind of loosening up exercise, perhaps performing the same function as an athlete stretching before a race. It stretches the artist’s brain, opening creative channels in preparation for diving into a painting or sculpture. Nancy found in sculpture, as well as drawing and painting, that your gesture, your energy, your signature are reflected in your marks and are unique to you, as singular as your fingerprints or the architecture of your retina. These intuitive marks will thread through all your artwork. In the vignettes below, we’ll hear from Lorraine Willis and Marilyn Simler on their experience of exploring the six maquettes in their art.

THE SIX MAQUETTE EXERCISE

135

Vignette: Lorraine Willis 6 Maquettes Well, where do I start with this one? I must take myself back to 2016 watching Nancy demonstrate and talk about Henry Moore and his way of ‘starting’ his wonderful work using clay maquettes. To say I took to this concept like a duck to water would be an understatement. I practically use the 6 maquettes daily.

Lorraine Willis | 6 Maquettes #1

I use them to warm up, I use them to explore concepts and compositions, I use them when I cannot think what else to do, and I use them just to play.

136

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Lorraine Willis | 6 Maquettes #2

I may not stick to the exact exercise, but I find marking off a piece of paper into six and seeing where it takes me fascinating.

Lorraine Willis | Six Maquettes #3, 8” X 8”

I am also a bit obsessed with pulling tape off afterwards if I’m honest! THE SIX MAQUETTE EXERCISE

137

Lorraine Willis | 6 Maquettes #4, 10” x 10”

So, what happens to them? Well in some cases I work on them further and end up with a finished piece of work, some go in the bin, others get cropped and framed, and others get turned into greeting cards.

138

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Lorraine Willis | 6 Maquettes #5, 12” x 12”

All in all, it is a valuable, enjoyable exercise–I am its number one fan. -Lorraine Willis

THE SIX MAQUETTE EXERCISE

139

Vignette: Marilyn Simler An expansion of what happened in this painting.

Marilyn Simler | Experimental Painting, 19.7” x 19.7”

I started a canvas with a host of mark making as I have now become accustomed to do since enrolling in your course.

140

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I find it so beneficial to starting a work and it calms and empties my mind. After laying in colours, Zorn colours, and drawing into them with a lot of flux and flow I was feeling quite good about it, mindful of structure, composition, contrast, line, and shape. After leaving it to dry, I came back and looked at it and hated it! It looked insipid, with not enough variety of values. So, armed with the knowledge of black and white to create differences of values, I poured out a quantity of each from stubborn containers that emptied out far more than I intended, spilling across my palette. Feeling vexed with myself, my painting, and a recent family issue that was preying on my mind, I attacked the canvas with big brushes loaded with heaps of black and white paint and transformed a previously harmonious painting into a dissonant, possibly/probably ugly painting. Thinking it needed another bold element to balance it, I added a bold bit of collage, torn from a previous painting. Stepping back to look at it I saw a board behind with one of the original 6 maquette exercises where we had to make our personal ‘moves.’ All the moves were reflected in this painting. Full circle! -Marilyn Simler

THE SIX MAQUETTE EXERCISE

141

Exploration: Exploring the Six Maquette Exercise Materials: Paper, paint or marker, brush. Take out a piece of paper. Draw or tape off 6 boxes or rectangles of any size on your sheet of paper. Now, without thinking, without editing, without censoring yourself–Make 6 moves or marks in each box or rectangle you’ve drawn on your sheet of paper. Do this quickly. Don’t think. Just make your marks and get out of there! Now, look at your sheet of paper with your spontaneous marks. I submit to you that these are your marks. These are your gestures. This is your lexicon. This is your personal signature. And these marks will thread through everything you create, through all your work.

142

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

21 - Your Personal Lexicon of Mark Making In the last chapter we discussed the uniqueness of one’s maquettes in clay or in your drawings and paintings. Marks are an extension of you. They are an expression of your hand, gesture, emotions, personal history, aesthetics, and energy. Marks mirror your inner state. You have your own lexicon, your own signature of marks unlike anyone else. They are your fingerprints, out in the world. You can express an infinity of feelings and states of mind with your gestural expression, energy, and mark making. You can create compelling dialogues between contrasting emotions or states of mind and play with the concept of predominance (making something predominant and the other subordinate– “a lot of this, a little of that”) to create visual excitement. There’s an expressive language to mark making. Notice how your marks are emotionally expressive–they convey various states of mind and emotions. As you explore the reaches of your experiences you further develop your eye to see and feel the expressive energy your marks and gestures confer. You can further explore mark making in the context of emphasizing visual contrast and predominance.

YOUR PERSONAL LEXICON OF MARK MAKING

143

Vignette: Rhonda Campbell My Handmade Brushes I have been making my own tools and brushes for about seven years now.

Rhonda Campbell | Handmade Mark Making Tools

I love scavenging in nature to find suitable sticks and twigs, also interesting pieces to attach, to create different markings.

Rhonda Campbell | Handmade Mark Making Tools

144

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

You’ll see my favorite brush below.

Rhonda Campbell | Fave Brush

There is a certain thrill when dipping these brushes into the ink or paint for the first time–a mystery, excitement, and spontaneity.

YOUR PERSONAL LEXICON OF MARK MAKING

145

Rhonda Campbell | Mark Making, 11” x 15”

These brushes allow me to be bold, brave, to explore, and experiment…

146

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Rhonda Campbell | Mark Making #2, 11” x 15”

…a new way of thinking and feeling.

YOUR PERSONAL LEXICON OF MARK MAKING

147

Rhonda Campbell | Thin, Scratchy Mark Making, 15” x 11”

Whether exploring thin, scratchy marks…

Rhonda Campbell | Thicker, Scratchy Mark Making, 15” x 11”

148

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Or thick, scratchy marks…

Rhonda Campbell | Thick Paint, Thick Marks, 15” x 11”

Or thick paint, thick marks…

Rhonda Campbell | Marks

YOUR PERSONAL LEXICON OF MARK MAKING

149

Lots of mark making in my studio!

Rhonda Campbell | Mark Making in The Studio

Finding my own voice with these different tools and creating new markings is my way of developing my own lexicon. -Rhonda Campbell

150

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Exploration: The Expressive Language of Mark Making Mark off a sheet of paper with at least 6 squares or rectangles and express 6 different moods, emotions, adjectives, or states of mind. Do this quickly. Don’t think, just express. Create several of these mark making studies. Choose 2 contrasting elements, emotions/feelings/states/concepts/words (for exampleenergetic vs. calm, angry vs. sad, curvilinear vs. angular, lyrical vs. edgy) and make one of them predominant. What do you notice about your marks? Do you see your lexicon of mark making that is unique to you? Any preferences in the marks you make? Write about this in your art journal.

YOUR PERSONAL LEXICON OF MARK MAKING

151

22 - Sketchbook Starts In Chapter 18, we discussed starts and process as an essential path to generating novelty and excitement in the creative journey. But how do we translate that into everyday practice? Here we explore the power of using a sketchbook or art journal to explore many starts and learn from the process. This is a powerful way to open creative channels. Your journal can be an actual journal or pieces of paper or a set of photos on a computer. It can be anything you want–an ever-evolving place to experiment. It’s a wonderful vehicle in which to play. You can play with all sorts of things in your journal. You can use them to experiment and get ideas and inspiration from creative impulses. For example, you might reflect on observations in nature– such as colors, shapes, texture, movement, and value contrast. You might play with poetry, music, words, or sounds and weave this into an experimental painting. You might explore how a particular sound, like the ringing of a bell translates into mark making or shapes. You might explore how a poem feels and express this through color. You could explore shapes by creating tiny studies in your journal which you later work up into larger paintings. These are merely a selection of ideas. Your journal can be anything you choose.

152

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Vignette: Elizabeth Vander Schaaf Sketchbook Practice–At Last For years, I looked at my little stack of sketchbooks which ranged from basic paper journals to nicer splurges to beautiful, handmade leather books gifted by a friend. They sat unused, kinda sad, almost rebuking me. Something about them brought out the perfectionism I thought I’d moved past. I felt free experimenting on loose paper but frozen in a pristine book. Still, I wanted to learn from sketchbook explorations and loved watching Nancy paint with abandon in hers. I definitely had sketchbook envy! I tried one page, felt forced, and dropped it. Later, I skirted the sketchbook problem by starting a practice of making small works on heavy paper.

S K E TC H B O O K S TA R T S

153

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Small Works

I’ve made hundreds of these in different series and still love working this way.

154

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Small Works

Still, the sketchbook thing enticed and eluded me. Then, by chance, I learned something–how to make a small booklet out of a single sheet of paper–and that changed everything.

S K E TC H B O O K S TA R T S

155

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Handmade Sketchbook

I decided to use some of my painted upon paper instead of a blank sheet, and that led me to making dozens of different kinds of books in various shapes and sizes.

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Handmade Sketchbook

156

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

These sketchbooks feel personal and not at all precious.

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Handmade Sketchbook

Some become little works of art, others are uninspiring, with potential to grow.

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Handmade Sketchbooks

S K E TC H B O O K S TA R T S

157

And it’s ok to have an ugly page. I love experimenting in them, and, aside from the fun of creating and enjoying accidental discoveries, the books serve as a meaningful reference.

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Sketchbooks as Reference

Instead of looking outside for inspiration, I like looking through the books to find even one little thing to riff off and take further.

158

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

One page, one mark, one color, one combination might inspire inquiry or a new series.

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Looking Inside

It’s funny how someone could go from long time frozen to completely obsessed in one season, but that’s what happened, and I’m grateful. I like having different ways to experiment–small works, maquettes, starts large and small, and, finally, sketchbooks. They all feel like welcoming places of discovery. -Elizabeth Vander Schaaf

Exploration If you didn’t worry about ugly paintings or creating masterpieces, what kinds of starts would you explore in your sketchbook? What creative impulse is calling you now?

S K E TC H B O O K S TA R T S

159

Section III: Experiment

23 - Introduction Experimentation moves you past emulating others. This is about improvisation, stepping into the unknown, asking What if? and allowing ugly art to emerge.

Cultivate An Attitude of Experimentation One of the most important things you can do for your development as an artist is to cultivate an attitude of experimentation with daily practice in your art journal or studio. Why is this important? This is another way of getting at trusting yourself. If you can imagine experimenting and exploring when you paint, if you can tell yourself you’re creating exploratory studies, if you can envision and allow yourself to create ugly paintings–and see it all as experimentation, then you’re in essence trusting yourself as an artist. The most astonishing work, the art I can’t forget, has a rawness and immediacy to it–a sense of the artist searching as she paints. The painting feels alive.

INTRODUCTION

161

Moving From Perfectionism to Experimentation This is a big one. Perfectionism shows up and most of us grapple with this as artists. Yet, there’s power in subverting the perfectionist mindset by telling yourself you don’t have to create a masterpiece. If you finally move past the tyranny of creating masterpieces and focus instead on experimentation, there is a greater chance you will take yourself and your viewers somewhere new with your art. If you adopt an attitude of not knowing and begin to not only allow, but also embrace ugly art–it’s likely you’ll access the adjacent possible. You’ll work in a series; you won’t get caught up in one painting and make it precious. You’ll be like a scientist exploring variations on your big idea. Your series might be two to five paintings, twenty paintings, or even 100 paintings or more. And then you’ll listen and stay open and notice serendipitous happenings that occur as you create and as you observe your art. You’re not trapped in a series. Indeed, it’s not the length of the series that matters, but rather noticing what unfolds within it.

Giving Yourself Permission to Create Your Own Art Perfection is highly overrated, and perfectionism is ultimately boring. The important thing is giving yourself permission to create. One of the issues an artist faces is the tendency to emulate artists one admires. This may be fine for a brief period, but ultimately it is deadening. Perhaps the thing to emulate is the attitude of experimentation in the act of creating.

162

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

What if you allow yourself to create, to share your vision, your stories, your mark making? What if you create in a way that feels authentic to you at this time in your life, rather than merely creating something that is praised or well-received? What if you give yourself radical permission to go into the unknown and see what emerges and unfolds in your art?

INTRODUCTION

163

24 - What If? A most important question. If you could ask yourself one rhetorical question as an artist what would it be? How about, What if? We could think of asking What if? as willful and principled experimentation. This is about allowing yourself to do experiments where you don’t know what the result is going to be, but with enough structure to be able to take advantage of what you learn. You are stumbling into the unknown, but with a flashlight. This is how great recipes are found in cooking and how innovation happens in art. Foods we consider delicacies now, like mushrooms and snails, were discovered when the French were hungry in the 1600s. Now, they are enshrined as haute cuisine. There were probably many foods people tried that we don’t eat now. Perhaps some of those people didn’t live to talk about it, especially certain kinds of mushrooms, like Amanita phalloides, the death cap mushroom. With art, at least you live to tell the tale. It’s safer than many mushrooms. Safer than some of the things you might eat if you find yourself desperate for food. Art can stand in for taking those kinds of risks. The philosopher of science Karl Popper said, “Your ideas die in your stead,” evoking the structure of the Darwinian evolutionary process while abstracting the consequences.

164

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Our paintings die in our stead, but we live and evolve. We can go into the wild terra incognita with our art. It is not going to kill us, even though the amygdala, deep in the medial temporal lobes of our brain, is screaming Don’t go there. It’s deadly! We’re wired to fear the unknown, for the sake of survival. A few thousand years of civilization is not going to overwrite millions of years of programming.

Vignette: James Edward Being experimental came from my work–I spent 30 years in special effects for television. We continually had to create a one-time prototype of something that was never done this year. That’s what I’m thinking. It’s something that you eventually pick up with your personality or your process as a person. So, I think it probably came from there because I had to experiment with a lot of stuff to make things happen. It was about mechanical effects, not computer effects. I made rain, snow, and earthquakes and had to destroy cars, buildings, and all this kind of stuff. I’m an electronics engineer. I started working at a television station doing maintenance, and then evolved to projects. They made this new complex in Rio, and I think they thought I was earning too much, so they fired me. I got back into a group building special effects compounds and went to the BBC to see how they worked. They hired me to do special effects, and I’ve been doing it almost 30 years.

W H AT I F ?

165

I wish I had started painting in high school because I think the process of painting is you just evolve. There’s a natural evolution the more you paint–you know that famous saying that you must have 10,000 miles of canvas. I think that’s right. You evolve and I think your painting gets better, more satisfying. Something like that. I paint every day. Now, I’m living in a small apartment. I don’t have any space to paint because I like to do action painting, throw the paints, use spray paints, and all that. I’m down to small size paintings and some digital paintings–but I still paint every day. -James Edward

James Edward | Experiment #1

166

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

James Edward | Experiment #2

W H AT I F ?

167

James Edward | Experiment #3

168

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Exploration: Exploratory Studies, Experimental Works Create exploratory works in your journal. Experiment with shape, line, color, value, and the division of space. Ask yourself the question: What if? What if I: Paint slowly? Quickly? Experiment with continuous line? Create unusual shapes with various protuberances? Experiment with tape? Use water to create texture? Keep asking What if? Try something new. Give yourself permission to experiment. Do something that surprises you.

W H AT I F ?

169

25 - The Surprise Benefits of Ugly Art What is ugly and who defines it? Art is subjective. One person’s “ugly” is another person’s “pretty.” Ugly paintings might be your most potent work, your best art. There are surprise benefits of ugly art. Also, there’s the experience of something appearing initially “ugly” eventually becoming a painting you value versus something appearing initially “good” only later to seem “ugly” or trite. Many artists run into internal resistance when they experiment and explore. One of the issues that may arise is the question of–Now that I’ve experimented and activated the canvas–now what? I don’t know what to do. There is a tendency to cover up the work or abandon it. I believe it is vital to allow some of your experimental paintings to just live. Let them be without covering them up. Give them time to exist. They may be the nascent, embryonic forms of something novel being birthed. Or not. In biology, evolution moves relatively slowly. The results of many “experiments” of evolution can co-exist for many generations, working out their relationships and niches. We often don’t recognize or value the images that arise when something new is emerging perhaps because it’s unfamiliar. We may think it’s ugly and therefore we quickly paint over it. Try allowing space for your experimental pieces to live.

170

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

The artist’s journey is long, circuitous, and sometimes painful. It asks you to be vulnerable, to risk, explore, experiment, and create many paintings–some you do not like, some you may never like, some that do not ‘work,’ some that appear ‘ugly,’ some that only in retrospect you value, and some that will ultimately astonish you. In the end, it is about the process of expressing your own truth, gesture, mark making, brush strokes, meaning, vision, and voice. Even the paintings you deem unsuccessful, the paintings you don’t like–are important, perhaps more important than anything else you create. They have lessons to reveal as they mirror your life.

Vignette: Brittany Lyn Befriending Ugly I used to be paralyzed by the fear of creating ugly art. While I feel fortunate to have attended a high school with a strong focus on the arts, completing assignments that were graded led to an intense preoccupation with outcome, and self-imposed pressure for that outcome to be “good.” Still life sketchbook assignments were exercises in lockjaw. If I was lucky, I’d have a fleeting moment of joy at the end of a sketch to distract me from what would otherwise routinely be a sore mandible. Often, I left little notes at the bottom of the page trying to convey the time and effort I had put into the assignment as a way of mitigating what I perceived to be subpar drawings. The works I

T H E S U R P R I S E B E N E F I T S O F U G LY A R T

171

submitted for larger assignments were carefully planned and executed. The ability to control the outcome was my main priority. I attempted to start many different sketchbooks as part of a personal art practice, but I couldn’t shake the expectation that each page needed to be a miniature masterpiece. When ugly emerged, it was intolerable to me–pages were either torn out, or at best, glued together to hide what lay between. I never managed to finish any of these personal sketchbooks; the pressure for perfection was stifling. My earliest glimpse at the possible value of so-called “ugly art” occurred in grade 12. We were given an assignment with only one specification: to create a painting related to the theme of “the constructed image.” I used this opportunity to attempt to work in partnership with this ever-present fear of ugly. I told myself I would purposefully try to paint sheets of paper with no consideration of composition or design. The goal was ugly. Taking the assignment quite literally, I cut painted sheets of paper into 1”x 1” squares. It was my opportunity to bring the considered back into the equation as I arranged the squares into a pleasing composition. Below is a work I created many years ago using the same process of cutting up the painted sheets, not all in this case were 1”x 1”, but close.

172

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Brittany Lyn | Befriending Ugly, 5” x 5”

Interestingly, even with the explicit intention of creating something ugly, I couldn’t totally let loose and make a scribbly mess. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, it was the first (and arguably most difficult) step toward increasing my tolerance of ugly. It was a step toward what would later prove to be a liberating direction.

T H E S U R P R I S E B E N E F I T S O F U G LY A R T

173

Remarkably, this hypercritical mindset did not completely snuff out my longing to create. I was aware that something was holding me back–preventing me from creating from a place of real depth–but I had no idea how to meaningfully change this. I reluctantly ended up abandoning visual arts for 13 years in favour of pursuing a career in healthcare, rooted in the certainty of science. Nancy’s philosophical approach to creativity was instrumental in pulling me back to painting. Her exercises such as automatic drawing and the six maquettes have allowed me to routinely practice a quieting of the critical inner voice that dominated my creative expression in years prior. These exercises continue to provide the space to explore and prioritize my intuitive, bodily way of knowing and mark making. It is a practice of allowing–allowing what is within to emerge in whichever form it needs to take. I have come to a place of understanding that ugly paintings are an inevitable and valuable part of a creative process rooted in experimentation. I expect imperfection. Learning to befriend the little monsters and large monstrosities that undoubtedly rear their heads, has replaced what used to be unmistakable tension and paralysis, with the ability to pick myself up and carry on through a lens of self-compassion. Growing in this way is not linear and occurs over a lifetime. It is not always easy, and I have certainly not arrived at my destination, but the journey so far has brought a freedom of expression and contentment of heart like none other. - Brittany Lyn

174

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

26 - I Want You Green Have you noticed how many artists avoid green? How often green turns out looking lurid, chemical, toxic, or radioactive? And that’s on good days. This topic came up when I interviewed Lorraine Willis, an amazing artist in Sancerre, France and a guest teacher and guide in Studio Journey Masterclass, whose paintings are consistently chosen for prestigious exhibitions in France. Lorraine said she hated green, and therefore avoided it. But a surprising thing happened. While showing us her museum worthy art journals and astonishing paintings and talking about how she loves blue, I asked her what color she liked least. This brought forth a gurgle of laughter because we all knew Lorraine detested green and avoided it at all costs. I wanted her to talk about that because I think it’s an important thing to notice and reflect upon–not only the things we love but also the things we hate. Words flashed in my mind: Green, how I want you green from The Somnambule Ballad by Federíco García Lorca as Lorraine talked about green. I suggested she look at the poem. She did–and not only that, she also researched the poem’s history which led to finding a reinterpretation of the poem by PK Page. Just a few words, from a poem, changed everything. It led her somewhere new. Lorraine now embraces green with abandon.

I WANT YOU GREEN

175

These are the kinds of creative conversations that can lead us into new territory in our art and life. You never know when a few words from a poem will open a world of possibilities in your art.

Vignette: Lorraine Willis Green, How I Want You Green Anyone who knows me as an artist, knows I struggle with green. I always find it gives feelings of landscapes and nature and often that is not the feeling I am trying to portray. Like all of us, from time to time, I wonder where to go next and look for inspiration. Having one of those moments, I found myself on a Masterclass coaching call with Nancy. She asked me what colour I liked least. GREEN! Of course, this brought forth laughter from a few of my dear Masterclass friends. Then Nancy suggested I read the poem, The Somnambule Ballad by Lorca, and there it was, that spark of inspiration, a fizz of something exciting.

176

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Lorraine Willis | Green, How I Want You Green, 36.2” x 43.3”

I read the poem and researched its lineage, and the rest is history. The poem evoked a stirring depth of love and passion not only between humans but a love of one’s homeland, in this case Andalucia. I also found a poem by PK Page, a beautiful and clever reinterpretation of the original. The surreal imagery is compelling, and I just love ‘Moonstone and Vodka’ which led to the title of the second ‘green’ work albeit a very yellow green!

I WANT YOU GREEN

177

Lorraine Willis | Moonstone and Vodka, 36.2” x 43.3”

I now had enough ideas and motivation for a series. Words and lyrics have always been my inspiration and I loved working with these two beautiful poems. I gritted my teeth and got out all the greens I possessed and started–zero to one! I fully let go– knowing I did not care very much; it was only green after all. I had no idea where the pieces were going or what would happen. Anyway, this happened, and I sold Green, How I Want You Green within a week.

178

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Exploration: The Emerging Giant Monster This exercise came out of conversations with Lorraine Willis about expanding one’s repertoire for tolerating ugly art, ugly monsters. This is about allowing an emerging, evolving work over a period–weeks, months, perhaps years. Set up a piece of paper or canvas in your studio. Allow this canvas or paper to be the recipient of spontaneous brush strokes, random marks, leftover paint, or anything else you like–it doesn’t have to be green! Allow the painting to emerge over time. Photograph the work as it changes over days, weeks, and months. If you are feeling technologically robust, set up a camera and make a time-lapse movie of your work. Place the images of the evolving work in your art journal, leaving notes about your feelings and reactions along the way.

I WANT YOU GREEN

179

27 - The Paintings of Your Future Some of your creations are ahead of you. Leonardo Da Vinci invented the idea of a helicopter, an air screw, but the technology required to turn his idea into reality had not evolved yet. Materials from the 15th and 16th centuries such as wood and canvas and human or animal power were not up to the task, even though the idea was sound. A whole context was yet to be created. Helicopters were physically possible, but they were not adjacent yet. Likewise, some of your paintings are so far ahead of you that you don’t “see” them or value them at the time you create them because you can’t integrate them into your current reality. They’re over the horizon. This is often the case with ugly paintings. There’s a kind of time shifting when your art is ahead of you–out there in your future. Sometimes early art is like this. It’s amazing how your perspective changes over time. It’s as if you finally catch up to your vision, your art. Therefore, it’s important to hold onto early art, especially ugly art. Like Leonardo, keep your notes! Somebody may appreciate helicopters down the line, and it might just be you!

180

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Vignette: Lorraine Willis The Paintings of Your Future Have you ever painted something and then thought to yourself That’s a bit bizarre, where did that come from, and I don’t like it much? Many times, this has happened to me in the past and I would end up taking out the gesso and covering it over before anyone could see it, most of all, me! Then one day I was searching for something in my photo album, and I came across one such painting before the gesso stage. I remember thinking Ooh that is interesting, did I do that? I wonder where it is. Then realising, of course, I had covered it up and made the canvas more acceptable to me at the time. I remember feeling a bit sad because the painting was no more and looking at it now, I quite liked it. A painting can sometimes turn up that was not supposed to be in your studio for another few years because it feels strange, it does not sit comfortably with the rest of your work. Maybe there were marks that did not feel like yours or colour combinations and compositions that seemed odd to you. And so, the best thing to do is cover it over and forget about it. What I have learnt from this is that you can sometimes be ahead of yourself. If you let these paintings live and stay around, you will probably feel much more positive about them after time has passed. Why? Well, your intuitive work was probably far ahead of you, waiting for you to catch up in another time dimension–a sort of time shift into the future artist you will become.

THE PAINTINGS OF YOUR FUTURE

181

So, l try and let them live and revisit them in the future with new eyes. Who knows? These paintings may become your finest work. -Lorraine Willis

Lorraine Willis | Future, 36.2” x 43.3”

Reflection: Time Shifting Reflect on art you’ve created that was ahead of you and your time. What message did it hold for your future self? Record your thoughts.

182

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

28 - Don’t Throw Away Your Ugly Art Sometimes something deeply meaningful, ineffable, and inarticulable comes through an early work and we don’t understand it at the time. Therefore, I ask artists to let at least some of their artwork live, let it be, don’t necessarily throw it out, or go back over it. Let it live. Stash it away and contrive to stumble upon it later. Ten years down the road, the art you now deem ugly may have a message for you–it might even delight and astonish you. If you don’t have space, photograph it! At first, we do not see the value of ugly art. We do not recognize it. It feels awkward. We feel allergic to it, and therefore reject it. And yet it might be the beginnings of something astonishing. Then again, it might not. Painting is like fishing. They call it “fishing” instead of “catching” for a reason, but if you don’t fish, you don’t catch. I had a conversation with an artist who found an old portrait she had painted years ago. When she created it, she hated it and therefore buried it in the pages of a book. One day, thumbing through the book, a painting fell to the floor. She thought, This is beautiful. She flipped the painting over to see who created it and found out it was hers. This story of an artist re-finding artwork from years ago and at first not recognizing it as her own is one to consider when you feel like throwing away your art. The artist had unwittingly allowed the painting to live for years, hidden in a book.

D O N ’ T T H R O W A W A Y Y O U R U G LY A R T

183

It survived her rejection. Perhaps it was waiting for her to catch up. It lived in the future. When the artist reflected on her painting, she realized it was part of herself she rejected years ago. It was expressing something she was not ready to receive until now. She felt emotional thinking about it. When she painted it, she was working full time and undergoing cancer treatment and didn’t have the mental or physical energy to focus on art. She told herself, One day I’m going to be an artist. Today she is a working artist and cherishes that portrait. She no longer throws away her art–she keeps it to remember.

Vignette: Elizabeth Vander Schaaf Ugly Paintings–Always A Struggle Ugly paintings are always a struggle. My head knows that they come with a practice that includes a lot of experimenting, and I love experimenting. I’m excited to try anything–from painting with a strand of wavy hair to flinging paint where more winds up on the ceiling than on the canvas. Still, it’s hard spending hours in the studio, only to see something hideous, something without even a little corner or speck of delight. I feel it in my body–a heavy, discouraging disappointment. It can feel like wasted time. Should I have planned my color mixing? Why did exploring one day yield something interesting and today not only not interesting but really ugly? I hate the heavy feeling.

184

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I have an impulse to keep going, to try and rescue the ugly painting. Should I paint over it in white? What if I paint a beautiful pattern on top? There must be some way to turn this monster into something even a little bit appealing. I think about a distinction I feel between Ugly/Weird versus Ugly/Ugly. Ugly/Weird can be interesting and somehow appealing. Ugly/Ugly is just a turn off. It wasn’t always this way, but Ugly/Weird excites me now. Ugly/Ugly just feels discouraging. I try to go back to my thinking self, remembering that Ugly/Ugly is part of evolving as an artist. Let it go. Keep experimenting. It all matters. -Elizabeth Vander Schaaf

D O N ’ T T H R O W A W A Y Y O U R U G LY A R T

185

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Ugly/Ugly, 24” x 18”

The marks on this start feel menacing and ungraceful. I’ll probably go back in and veil over much of the black.

186

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Ugly/Interesting, 24” x 18”

While using the back of a start as a painting mat, something interesting happened.

D O N ’ T T H R O W A W A Y Y O U R U G LY A R T

187

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Ugly/Ugly, 36” x 24”

An ugly monster for experimenting. It’s even uglier in person!

188

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Ugly/Interesting, 36” x 24”

This muddy exploratory painting came about when I was stretching to go bigger. It grew on me over time, so I went back in adding some marks and color. 

D O N ’ T T H R O W A W A Y Y O U R U G LY A R T

189

Exploration: Ugly Art Start a journal to catalog and document your ugly art. This could include: ugly drawings ugly paintings “failures” mistakes photographs of “ugly” art Date the pages and write notes by the ugly art examples. In your notes you might explore: your thoughts aha moments observations reactions to the art emotions memories or anything else you want to document

190

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

29 - Bite Into It, Baby Take big bites. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

An Artistic Exhortation About Trust We’ve got to learn to trust ourselves. Only then will we be able to play, experiment, and take bold risks. This is what makes exciting, powerful, expressively alive paintings. Better to bite your teeth into the painting, perhaps leaving it raw and undone, rather than overwork it by gumming it to death. This is about decisiveness, but it is also about staying open. Don’t crystallize too early–keep creative channels open and fluid. This combination requires confidence and faith in yourself. “I don’t know where I’ll end up, but I’ll be all right and I’ll have a good story to tell at the end.” A friend of Bruce’s recalls a professor of his saying on his first day of medical school, “You can live life as a résumé or as a story. Your choice.” Being open is a particular psychological state and requires a cultivated self-awareness to maintain. It is easy to slide off this peak. When doubt creeps in you overthink and overwork your paintings, and openness is fleeting. We’ve all done this.

BITE INTO IT, BABY

191

There’s a story of Helen Frankenthaler creating a magical painting. It was one of those ‘forever’ paintings–one that works from the first paint stroke to the last. We live for those paintings. But how easy it is to miss the moment. She went away for a cup of tea, came back to the painting, and thought: Oh, it just needs a little green here. And then she said: ‘I ruined it!’ We’ve all had this experience. Self-doubt leads to second-guessing the painting. You overthink it and start licking the paint. You lose the magic. Instead, bite into it, baby! Be decisive.

Vignette: Elizabeth Vander Schaaf Weird Paintings - Trust Yourself One time, I created a series of 24” x 18” starts that were unusual for me. What made them unusual? Well, I painted them on the floor, my most craved but least comfortable painting spot. I used dark raw umber, a color I’d never used and wanted to try. Into the paint, I mixed the semi-dried-up remains of metallic bronze and copper from little tubes I’d had for years and, honestly, just wanted to use up and toss. I thinned the dark umber to make it a bit fluid, mixed up a vivid turquoise, then painted, pressed, and splattered, one page at a time, loving the amorphous shapes that appeared, the high contrast

192

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

against the white paper, and the surprises that happened when I pressed on random little blobs of metallic paint that remained unmixed in the dark raw umber. Never would I have come up with that interesting effect had I been trying instead of experimenting. I ended up with 12 starts and, feeling excited by what I saw the next morning after letting them dry, I ignored the insecure voice inside which said, They’re really weird! All I knew was that I liked them. They lit me up, even though they looked strange and unlike anything I’d ever painted before. I let them be. Here are 6 paintings from the series, in their original, raw form:

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Six Painting Starts

BITE INTO IT, BABY

193

A few months later, I left some in their original, raw state and chose others to go back into, still exploring. A young computer scientist ended up buying three of the paintings to hang side by side in his apartment.

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Finding Home Series, 24” x 18”

194

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Finding Home Series, 24” x 18”

I was reminded once again to trust myself, not because the paintings found a home, but because even though they felt strange, they delighted me. And sometimes what delights us as artists might delight someone else. -Elizabeth Vander Schaaf BITE INTO IT, BABY

195

30 - The Spontaneous & The Considered One of the joys of being a conscious being is that one can engage in the planning and sequencing of actions. This, then that. And logic, too! If this, then that. Not everything in our human experience is reactive or instinctive. We believe this separates us from most other species, though scientific surprises may await on this topic. One of the most important things you can do for your development as an artist is cultivate an attitude of experimentation with daily practice in your art journal or studio. This combines the spontaneity of experimentation with the consideration of record-keeping and decision-making. To explore the dynamic between spontaneous and considered, automatic drawing emerged in the early 20th century to express the unconscious or subconscious mind beyond conscious control. The conscious aspect, of course, was preserving and memorializing the activity as lasting works of art. Automatic drawing is a stream of consciousness, automatic, unplanned mark making and painting that relies upon trusting the gesture, allowing the intelligence of the body to express itself. This activity can liberate and suspend the judging, second-guessing, self-doubting mind. You can’t do this wrong!

196

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Vignette: Elizabeth Vander Schaaf A Little Monster Needs Wrestling If painting felt easy or automatic, I wouldn’t be enthralled. Does that mean if a good painting emerges easily, I love it less than one I struggled with? No, I appreciate both equally. Quick doesn’t equate with easy or automatic and can involve big surprises along with the courage to stop. One recent painting was the opposite of quick, but surprising in the end. Over weeks, I experimented on a deep, twelve-inch square canvas, exploring unusual colors, tools, and materials, layer after layer. At times, I felt disappointed, because deep down I’d hoped something appealing would develop. The “little monster” cycled from interesting to ugly and back. I decided to paint creamy white stripes in different widths over a nebulous, dark layer, craving contrast and wanting to try stripes for a change from my usual organic shapes. The painting caught my eye but drew no spark. I glazed over the whole thing, toning down the stripes with a favorite green, but instead of adding the spark I wished for, the elements blended, looking kind of interesting, but definitely not me. I felt little connection to the work and began feeling annoyed and tired of it. Though I liked areas, overall, it felt inauthentic and uninspiring. Someone else might have liked it, but just looking at it bothered me, and I almost tossed it. I rarely felt this level of annoyance at failed work. What was up? I’d started out happily experimenting. The trouble had started when I changed my attitude from exploring to trying to make something good. Strategic thinking took over, and the considered began outweighing the spontaneous.

T H E S P O N TA N E O U S & T H E C O N S I D E R E D

197

That was it! The little monster disturbed me because I feel most alive and authentic when my work is more spontaneous and less considered. Both approaches matter, but for me the spontaneous feels best. I accepted that my aim had shifted from experimenting to making something I love. Some paintings are wrestled with a lot yet can still feel alive and fresh at any point. I hoped this would be one of them. I remembered what Nancy says about approaching the middle or finish with the same energy as the start. There was hope. Days later, I’m going into some old starts with pinks and oranges, a combo I love.

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Little Monster, 12” x 12”

198

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

The little monster is on the wall, too, waiting for attention. I paint over some of the stripes in pink and orange, immediately liking vivid over muted, and set it aside to dry. More painting on starts. The palette becomes a runny, beautiful mess. I think about how that chaos might look plopped onto the little monster, quickly put the painting on the floor, and drape the palette towards one chosen side of the canvas. The considered and the spontaneous in one move. After months of wrestling, it snuck up on me. Magic happened. -Elizabeth Vander Schaaf

T H E S P O N TA N E O U S & T H E C O N S I D E R E D

199

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Little Monster, 12” x 12”

Reflection: What’s your experience of the spontaneous and the considered in your art? Do you allow yourself to not know where the painting is going? Do you tend to have a plan? Do you dance between the spontaneous and the considered while you create? Write your thoughts and reflections in your journal.

200

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

31 - Clay Maquettes The British sculptor Henry Moore created thousands of clay maquettes, or little studies, to explore and play with ideas for his colossal sculptures. The malleability of clay, the olfactory sensations, the kinesthetic experience of working with your hands as you bend and mold the clay is powerful. And it’s just plain fun in a return-to-childhood sort of way. We can translate this 3-dimensional kinesthetic experience onto the 2-dimensional surface of paper. Take in the smell of paint, the scratch and swish of brushes, the friction your markers create on paper, the luscious butteriness of oil pastels, the texture of canvas or paper, the pencil laying down a clean line. Creating a maquette is a sensory experience. Think of Stravinsky saying about a piece of music, “It is so visceral I can smell the rosin on the bows of the strings.”

Vignette: Brittany Lyn At The Artist’s Journey Retreat, we were each given a large ball of clay to knead and divide into six roughly equal pieces. Our instructions were to make six moves on each piece of clay, put it down, and move on to the next.

C L AY M AQ U E T T E S

201

Clay Maquettes

Brittany Lyn | Clay Maquettes closeup

202

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Back at our easels, we were asked to create two quick 15-minute studies of these clay maquettes. My first attempt at translating the essence of the clay onto paper felt unfocused and tight. It was however a valuable and necessary part of this exploratory process.

Brittany Lyn | Clay Maquette Painting, 20” x 16”

C L AY M AQ U E T T E S

203

Prior to the second study, my eye caught the curve of my thumb print and the echo of its pressure in the soft clay. I chose to try and capture this detail. Intuitively working from a clay form that held the unique marks of my body, my hands, resulted in a painting that came from deep within, born almost, from my core. It felt like an expression of me. It was something that I looked at and loved–an experience standing in stark contrast to how I usually perceive myself. To truly know what this feels like is a gift I have held onto and try to return to in times when I need to show myself grace. -Brittany Lyn

Exploration: The Clay Maquette Exercise: 3D to 2D Dimensional Reduction Materials: Clay Board or tray (approximately 9” x 12” or larger) Paper (sheet of paper, approximately 24” x 18” sheets) Black acrylic paint Brush Set up paper on your table or easel.

204

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Make six moves with your hands on six clumps of clay. No thinking, no editing. Notice the kinesthetic and aesthetic experience in your body and hands.

Translate your experience, your feelings, onto the paper with paint. Do this without censoring, without thinking, without judging, without employing your strategic mind. Transfer the energy you felt with the clay onto the paper. Get in touch with how you feel. This is not about creating a masterpiece. This is about creating an expression from your experience and allowing that expression.

C L AY M AQ U E T T E S

205

32 – The Paradoxical Power of Constraint Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Leonardo Da Vinci

An important component of biological evolution is variation which maps onto experimentation. Nature is running experiments all the time via genetic mutation and genetic “crossover” induced by mating and reproduction. And nature is continuously experimenting with the combination of living things and environment because many creatures can move and change their surroundings. The other main ingredient of evolution is selection–which maps onto artistic constraint, which is about decision. According to Darwin, the failed experiments die off and exit stage right, leaving the rest to carry on–the so-called “survival of the fittest.” But they often linger on stage quite a while, because “fittest” is not straightforward. For artists, experiments are much less costly–some crumpled paper, some marks gessoed over, perhaps a painting rolled up and left for later. It may seem paradoxical that constraint is freeing. It’s a foundational component of creativity. Indeed, creativity thrives on constraint.

206

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

The possibilities of constraint are paradoxically limitless, because there are a staggering number of ways in which constraints can be imposed. I consider constraint to be one of the most important, foundational concepts for creating powerful art. By employing constraint, we simplify things and arrive at elegant solutions. This is a central tenet of science too. This dates to the fourteenth century, to William of Ockham, an English Franciscan friar, mathematician, and philosopher and his contribution to science, now known as “Occam’s Razor.” Occam’s Razor is a working hypothesis derived from the principle of parsimony, that “entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity,” meaning if there are two or more explanations of a phenomenon that are equally explanatory, select the simpler one. It’s a Razor used for logical shaving that pushes science towards simplicity and elegance. What we’re talking about is the importance of decision, a word that comes from the Latin decidire, meaning to cut through. A good use of a razor.

Vignette: Rhonda Campbell The constraint of colour is a favourite of mine–choosing a limited palette and mixing the colours. It could be just two colours plus black and white. The painting will always harmonise when working in this manner. I love keeping my paints in little plastic sauce containers found at Chinese restaurants. Given the dry climate in Australia, these pots keep my paints moist for a couple of days, even a fortnight. I like them so much; I went to a wholesaler and bought a stack of them. This is a tip for mixing paints that won’t dry out soon.

THE PARADOXICAL POWER OF CONSTRAINT

207

In the image below, is the Color/Value Exercise I explored in The Artist’s Journey course. In this first example, I explored a limited palette of: Turquoise Indian yellow Naples yellow reddish Purple White

Rhonda Campbell | Four Colors + Black & White

In my art journal below, I explored turquoise and cadmium yellow which created the lovely green.

208

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Rhonda Campbell | Color Journal

On the right-hand page, orange and purple were mixed to create russet. The image below is again from Nancy’s color exercises to create a limited palette.

Rhonda Campbell | 4 Yellows + Black & White

THE PARADOXICAL POWER OF CONSTRAINT

209

It’s a kind of “one color” palette because we’re exploring variations on yellow. In the image below, I explored two secondary colors: Australian red-gold (an orange) and Australian gum green (a green) as well as the mixture of the two colors.

Rhonda Campbell | Australian Grey Green + Black & White

I use these constrained palettes in my paintings and find that the colors harmonise beautifully. Below are examples of paintings created using a constrained palette.

210

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Rhonda Campbell | Constrained Palette 1, 15” x 11”

THE PARADOXICAL POWER OF CONSTRAINT

211

Rhonda Campbell | Constrained Palette 2, 15” x 11”

I love the beauty and possibility of working with constrained palettes. -Rhonda Campbell

212

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

33 – Take Line on A Journey Line has a unique property that it is reversible, one can go back and reconstruct the creation’s history. Bruce Sawhill

What is a mark? It’s a deposit, an impression left on a surface by a tool. Often this tool is a pencil, a block of charcoal, a graffiti marker, paint, or your hand. But it could be a tire mark, gun powder on paper–anything that leaves an impression. A line is a subspecies of mark. It is a mark that is longer than it is wide, a one-dimensional mark of sufficient width to be visible. Lines connect and delineate. Even the word “delineate” is rooted in “line,” but it means to confer order and meaning. Line is deeply embedded in our psyches. Linearity is line as an extended mark. A brushstroke can be a line (a mark that has linearity). An unbroken line has a special property–It is reversible, meaning one can trace it forwards or backwards. It has implicit history. Like a geological deposit, it tells a story and can yield its secrets with contemplation and the effort of mining it out. Line has many properties: direction, action, movement, weight, velocity, and energy to name a few.

TA K E L I N E O N A J O U R N E Y

213

Direction There are 3 main directions of line: vertical, horizontal, and diagonal. Each direction confers various meanings and feelings. Vertical lines relate to upright, soaring structures, like Gothic cathedrals. These structures were meant to glorify God, to have the congregation gaze upward in awe toward the heavens. They are both powerful and exalting. Horizontal lines express a sense of calmness, of the landscape. It’s lying down flat, not fighting gravity. Think of reclining nudes. Diagonal lines are the most dynamic, assertive, and aggressive lines. They create a feeling of tension, as in a structure falling due to gravitational forces.

Action There are 3 main actions of line: parallel, converging, and intersecting. These are exciting elements to play with in your art because they confer a sense of energy, movement, and relationship.

A Sense of Time Line implies movement which takes time to traverse. Imagine the possibilities for exploring the constraint of line and time in your art. You can explore line and a sense of elapsed time in myriad ways: continuous line linear fragments

214

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

staccato line slow, languorous line quick, vigorous line

Line As Symbol Line can serve as symbols: letters numbers punctuation marks signs (diagonal slash meaning “no”, monetary signs like dollars, cents, pounds, euros)

Line As Shape Line can become a shape maker. Line turns into shape (imagine drawing a circle, square, or triangle). You create shapes employing line.

Line As Energy & Mood Lines convey energy and mood. The weight of the line confers a certain energy and mood–When you go along a journey with line and suddenly add weight to it, the eye is drawn to that change. The eye notices the contrast in the weights of the line, especially if the line was light and wispy and suddenly changes to thick and heavy. TA K E L I N E O N A J O U R N E Y

215

Another exploration is when a line is going along quietly and suddenly changes to become energetic and frenetic–this gets our attention. You can explore contrasts in energy and mood of line. For example, you may have mostly lyrical lines in a painting which feels quite different from a work with raw, guttural, thick marks, or angry, angular marks.

Line & Nature There are no lines in nature. A mathematical line is an abstraction, an entity with no thickness, something that does not occur in the physical world of material and dimension. Lines are “higher order” effects, meaning they are abstractions that our conscious minds impose on natural phenomena as part of our sense-making–The outline of a tree against a bright background, the line formed by the crest of a breaking wave, individual veins on a leaf, the perimeter circles of heavenly bodies seen through telescopes, for example.

216

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Vignette: Kathy Lavine My story of the adjacent possible started in California at age 22, when life conspired to give me a stretch of time where I was free to draw and paint fresh out of art school. I didn’t have a subject in mind. I’ve always loved single line drawing. I have a theory that there isn’t anything you can’t draw with a single line. I would use my whole arm because I wanted to be able to retrace my steps and the gestural body memory was part of it. At the end of a line there would be a blob of ink made up of ink mixed with tiny bits of paper fiber that had gotten swept up along the line and would get deposited on the paper when I stopped moving. This was a punctuation mark that set me up for the next line. If I couldn’t carry on effectively from that blob, I’d turn the paper until I could, and that generated surprise and options for proceeding. That was my experience with the adjacent possible. This experimenting with line was a pivotal moment for me and I’ve always gone back to it. I remember sitting in the living room on a big comfortable chair, with the television on. I was far from home and the television was comforting. I love life drawing but finding models can be difficult if you’re not connected to an institution. Life drawing was my first step on my artistic journey and was the springboard for my inquiry into line.

TA K E L I N E O N A J O U R N E Y

217

Kathy Lavine | Life Drawing, 12” x 9”

I’d spend my days with an art pencil and a pad of paper. I started experimenting with my line theory. I’m so into line sometimes I’ll even draw in the condensation on the wall when I’m taking a shower. -Kathy Lavine

218

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Exploration: Journey of Lines Materials: large poster board or foam core board markers thin tape (electrical tape) thick tape yarn thread push pins Place your board in a prominent place. Begin your journey of exploring line over the course of a week or more (this could be a year long journey or more!). Add to the board when you feel called to do so. The image below is a collaborative experiment by The Adjacents, artists at The Artist’s Journey Retreat who explored the adjacent possible in their art and life. In the following piece, each artist explored line using markers, yarn, tape, and paint. This is what emerged over the course of five days.

TA K E L I N E O N A J O U R N E Y

219

”The Adjacents” | Taking Line on A Journey, 49” x 37”

Will your lines intersect? Loop? Will they abut one another? Conglomerate? Meander? Take photographs of your board as it changes. How will it evolve over time? You may wish to catalog your photos in your art journal, dating them, and making notes along the way–of your thoughts, feelings, observations, and states of mind as your work emerges.

220

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

34 - Intersections Intersections are where interesting things happen. Where paths cross, people meet, and this is where they may change direction. Where ideas intersect, new ideas are more likely to emerge. As an artist, intersections are where you explore and combine disparate things. Intersections and the intersection of things–things you love, nature, numbers. Nature is a big one. Obviously as a natural philosopher, I go to nature all the time. Explore a river, the movement of water, the movement of a model, your marks as you listen to music, and as you paint observing a dancer.

Serendipitous Simultaneity Harkening back to the dim ages before the Internet, there have been cases of serendipitous simultaneity across many fields of human endeavor that cannot be explained by a simple causal mechanism such as telling your friends in person or online. It is almost as if peoples’ minds tap into some sort of Zeitgeist (literally ‘spirit of the time’) that is nonverbal and non-isolatable, a kind of collective unconscious driving the creative evolution of civilization. Bruce has been thinking about a mysterious concurrence in human artistic history for the last thirty years. Being in conversation about the intersection of art and science has been an impetus for him to finally set pen to paper and organize his ideas.

INTERSECTIONS

221

Here is Bruce’s observation, a collection of four events that happened across four disparate areas of creative endeavor in a few short years around 1905-1909. I believe it shows there are powerful non-articulable forces at work in the subconscious that have profound and widespread effects.

Four Events Across Genres Implying Relativity of Time & Perspective In painting, Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon in 1907, a painting that did not have a single point of view to create a unified perspective around. Instead, it superimposed multiple points of view and was considered the first Cubist painting. One could argue that the time dimension was added to the static practice of painting, and this was employed using multiple points of view. Time is implied because changing points of view implies the painter or the subject moving, which would take time. Other multi-perspective paintings followed from many artists, culminating in perhaps the most famous, Nude Descending a Staircase (Nu descendant un escalier n° 2) by Marcel Duchamp in 1912. In music, the first atonal or twelve-tone pieces of music were composed, arising in the works of Bartòk and Schoenberg in 1908. Although it was not yet called “twelve-tone” music, the fundamental principles of the genre were being explored at this time. Arnold Schoenberg paired complementary hexachords and combinatorial tone rows in his work Moses und Aron. The concept of key or tonal center that had driven music for three centuries was eroded and ultimately discarded for music that had no tonal center. Everything was relative to what was around it, and there was no preferred tonal center, just as in painting there was no preferred visual perspective.

222

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

In literature, Marcel Proust began In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu) in 1909. In over three thousand pages and seven books spanning 13 years until his death in 1922, Proust explored multiple perspectives and the mutability of time and recollection depending on the point of view of the characters. Proust simultaneously addressed the importance and the subjectivity of time. What shows up again and again across different artistic pursuits is a new relationship with time, either explicitly (music and literature) or implicitly (art).

A New Relationship to Time Time and perspective are inextricably linked and furthermore colored by subjectivity. In science, something astonishing was bubbling up in the mind of a young man. In Switzerland in 1905, a 26-year-old patent clerk named Albert Einstein quietly published a revolutionary paper about a new theory called ‘Special Relativity.’ The theory stated that the Universe does not have a preferred point of view (“reference frame”) and timekeeping is distorted by one’s point of view (clocks moving relative to an observer appear to run slower). Again, time and point of view and subjectivity are inextricably intertwined. As J.B.S. Haldane, the evolutionary biologist said, Not only is the world stranger than we imagine, but it is also stranger than we can imagine. Einstein’s theory was just a portent of strangenesses to come.

INTERSECTIONS

223

How and why did all these perceptual and philosophical changes occur in such a short period of time? It is hard to imagine that Schoenberg, Proust, and Picasso all read Einstein’s paper (and understood it) and made a conscious decision to apply the spirit of special relativity in their studios. There is correlation, but is there causality? It’s an open question. It is as if something bubbled up from the collective subconscious when the world was ready for it. Both creatives and life forms are continually evolving in their contexts. Sometimes transformations can happen all at once when it seems like on the surface nothing is going on. This is like the iceberg–How much of life is visible and how much is invisible. The conscious world is merely the tip of the iceberg.

New Forms, New Experiences Arise at the Boundary of The Known & The Unknown We’re continually facing the unknown in our evolution as artists and humans. Art and creativity bring us light in the darkness, a way of exploring that which cannot be explored any other way, a way of expressing our most alive and meaningful life.

224

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Vignette: Kathryn Deiss I am playing with different approaches to metalpoint drawing. Below is a sketch in sandpaper with copper, brass, steel, and silverpoint–Just the beginnings of an idea.

Kathryn Deiss | Silverpoint on Sandpaper, 9” x 11”

INTERSECTIONS

225

But there is more I want to do on paper which will come in the next few weeks, I hope. But just wanted to share this. Adjacent Possible? Maybe? I got all kinds of stuff at the hardware store (brass gas valves, copper plumbing pipe, and other screws) to supplement my actual silverpoint tools and my grandmother’s gravy ladle! Here’s another thing I’ve got cooking with the metalpoint–I discovered that, though traditionally you must have specially prepared paper with a good enough tooth for silverpoint to work, these metalpoints appear to like latex paint. I found myself at the hardware store grabbing screws and valves for my experiment. I wandered over to the paint department and got a few neutral samples to see if the copper pipe and brass valves would work. They did! But now I am thinking of going back and picking up samples (is this stealing? yikes!) and doing a collage with mixed media, including metalpoint, around the series that came from the Aztec god! Sometimes I must calm myself down. I tend to immerse myself once I find one of these adjacent possible threads, but I don’t think that is apparent right now because I feel like I am inside a popcorn popper! See what you started?! –Kathryn Deiss

226

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Exploration: Intersections Combine 2 or 3 things that resonate with you. It might be a number and music. It could be an observation from nature (the movement of water in a river) and music. Create an exploratory study, an experimental work, or several. Allow for surprises.

INTERSECTIONS

227

Section IV: Evolve

35 - Introduction Evolution and life are inseparable. Everything that lives, evolves. It’s still an open question as to how it all got started, but that’s another book. Evolution is a general phenomenon of complex adaptive systems. These systems are characterized by having agency, which means they are composed of many different separate and at least partially autonomous entities that are reacting to their environment while they simultaneously change it with their actions. That includes us as humans. Complex adaptive systems are also characterized by nested structures, one within the next, like Matryoshka dolls. Our bodies are full of many other microscopic living things that help us metabolize, digest, and fight disease. We literally, as Walt Whitman said, “contain multitudes.” Each of us is a whole ecology of living things. And we contain the ability to abstract evolution in our brains, themselves the product of evolution. We contain ecologies of ideas, new ones entering, old ones leaving, some being created internally, all the time. Thoughts collide in our conscious and subconscious mind, sometimes surprising us. Our brains are full of neural intersections where great things happen. In Steven Spielberg’s film Jurassic Park, the character Ian Malcolm (played by Jeff Goldblum) opines, “Nature finds a way.” Just how does Nature find a way? Nature does lots of experiments, the variation we talked about

INTRODUCTION

229

earlier. And Nature takes copious notes–the results of experiments are passed from generation to generation as an amalgam of DNA and proteins. This allows the living world to keep on keeping on, it is living proof of its own efficacy. We humans find our way by cultivating an attitude of unfolding, of going to the edge, into the unknown, and continuing to go to that edge in our art. Specifically, in Chapter 32 we discussed variation in relation to experimentation. The other main ingredient of evolution, namely, selection–which maps onto artistic constraint, which we also explored, is about decision. In summary, what can we learn from evolution as artists? Do lots of experiments and take notes Try new things and relate them to things you know Be mindful that results might take a while Let artworks die in your stead Don’t stand still, anything that does becomes a target And finally, remind yourself of this: Being an artist is about continually evolving your art.

230

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

36 - An Evolving Catalog of Ideas In Chapter 35, we discussed the idea that “Nature takes notes.” In that vein, we’ve found it beneficial to keep an art journal, a sketchbook of evolving ideas. This allows a kind of micro-experimentation, of trying out ideas without requiring an entire artwork to do so, like trying out a recipe at home before making it the pièce de résistance for a banquet. When we explored the practice of creating lots of maquettes in Chapter 20, we discussed a kind of “journal on a page,” and it could be part of a larger art journal. In Chapter 22, we explored sketchbook starts. We believe sketchbooks are a great place to capture your evolving catalog of ideas. Keeping a sketchbook or art journal is a powerful practice because it brings visibility to what may be invisible or become lost–and visibility confers value.

A Place to Collect Ideas What inspires you in your art and life? An art journal or sketchbook is a container for your thoughts, reflections, aha moments, struggles, revelations, and inspiration. It might be a passage from a book, or a memory of your grandfather’s farm, the colors of a sunset, or the smell of gardenias. It can be anything. Years ago, I created abstract horse paintings. One day, I recalled the opening lines from W.B. Yeats’ poem The Song of Wandering Aengus:

A N E VO L V I N G C ATA LO G O F I D E A S

231

I went out to the hazel wood Because a fire was in my head I was struck by the line: Because a fire was in my head. I got a flash, an image of a horse lit with a fiery head. She was on fire with life, like the poet. I ran into my studio and here’s what emerged.

Nancy Hillis | Yeats’ Horse, 48” x 36”

232

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Yeats’ Horse led to a series of horse paintings that I explored for years.

Nancy Hillis | Scarlett, 48” x 48”

A N E VO L V I N G C ATA LO G O F I D E A S

233

As you play in your sketchbook, you may find this to be an evolving catalog of ideas and inspiration across time periods in your life and these may inform future work or be the springboard for future art. It also highlights what you love, what you’re curious about, perhaps future directions to explore. It’s a powerful thing to step back and look at your catalog of ideas over time. You may have a sketchbook from five years ago that has the chrysalis of an idea that excites you now, ready to emerge as a butterfly. You might create lots of starts or a whole series on an idea you re-find by reviewing your sketchbook. You could explore mark making using different tools, different viscosities of paint, and different colors. You might experiment with big gestural marks to free up your art and then activate a large canvas by throwing paint on its surface. I have a gigantic piece of charcoal I call the ‘Big Momma’ charcoal and it makes intense marks that are fun to play with not only in the sketchbook but also on paper and canvas.

234

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Nancy Hillis | ‘Big Momma’ Charcoal

Working with various tools and materials is interesting in terms of experimentation. It might lead you into something new. It might spark something novel. You might keep different types of journals–various sizes and shapes and find out what you prefer. If a journal is elegant, does that make it too precious? Or will you work in it anyway? Lorraine Willis has a prolific practice of working in sketchbooks and art journals. One day, she noticed a forlorn mop in her studio. Not being one excited to spend her time cleaning, it never got used and Lorraine decided it was of no use where it was.

A N E VO L V I N G C ATA LO G O F I D E A S

235

So, Lorraine took the mop into the studio, dipped it into a great vat of black paint, and scrubbed it over a canvas. Lorraine says: It was marvelous. Now it will never do any cleaning. So that’s fine. It is interesting to look back and see how your art is evolving–how you approached your painting then and how you approach it now. What shapes, colors, and marks were you exploring then and how does that relate to what you are exploring now?

Vignette: Lorraine Willis Evolving a Catalogue of Ideas Sketchbooks! Where do I start? Well, when I started painting, I could not see any benefit of sketchbooks at all. Surely it was better to spend the time painting. I also felt a bit self-conscious working in sketchbooks for some reason, all completely irrational and stupid. Then one day I picked up a small sketch book given to me as a gift and decided to mix some paint colours and there it began, a love affair with sketchbooks. I use sketchbooks all the time.

236

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Lorraine Willis | Sketchbooks

I use them to capture thoughts, ideas, ‘Aha’ moments.

Lorraine Willis | Re-Combinatorics study

A N E VO L V I N G C ATA LO G O F I D E A S

237

I play with colour palettes and composition.

Lorraine Willis | Exploring palettes and compositions

I explore endless variations by employing constraint in my colour palette.

Lorraine Willis | Exploration of a limited palette and composition

238

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I write down poems and lyrics that grab my imagination and, if I have an exhibition coming up, it is always the starting point. I stick pieces of magazines or print off visuals from the internet. I also use collage, sometimes of my old pieces (often maquettes) to start playing around with ideas.

Lorraine Willis | Exploring architectural forms

These are then used to inform a body of work but without knowing where any piece will go or finally end up. It is always a journey into the adjacent possible. I even started my Green, How I Want You Green series in my sketchbook. -Lorraine Willis

A N E VO L V I N G C ATA LO G O F I D E A S

239

Lorraine Willis | Genesis of ‘Green, How I Want You Green’

Exploration: An Evolving Catalog Consider cataloging your emerging, evolving ideas in a journal. What micro-experiments will you explore? Imagine surprise connections and intersections in your art over time.

240

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

37 - An Evolving Series The start of something is the end of something else. The end of something is the beginning of something new. All evolution is recycling.

If you deeply embrace experimentation as an artist, you will almost certainly stumble across the idea of a series. A series is a set of artworks related by some process or theme. Two famous series are Picasso’s 11 lithograph series The Bull, successively abstracting a representational depiction of a bull until he is left with the elegant simplicity of a line drawing and Claude Monet’s Rouen Cathedral Series, over 30 paintings of the cathedral in different light and weather. In music, the idea of series is so common it is memorialized as the concept of ‘theme and variations,’ such as Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini or J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Edward Elgar abstracts the idea of a theme to the point where it is hard to precisely identify but uses the form of a theme and variations anyway in his Enigma Variations. When you create lots of starts as an artist, something new emerges in the process of experimentation. Exploration usually proceeds stepwise just as it does in Nature, exploring the Adjacent Possible one work at a time. So, the tendency is to have long strings of related works until a logical conclusion is reached and you feel done with a particular exploration and want to try a new one. Each series is a kind of

AN EVOLVING SERIES

241

species history, and like species in Nature, they eventually play out or transform into something so different as to be unrelated. That said, one might wonder whether a series is ever finished. Like a river, a series is ever changing, and you may find yourself returning with new ideas to a series you worked on months or years previously.

Keep Going to The Edge To create something novel, you must keep evolving your art. Working in a series is about exploring, experimenting, and evolving an idea. For example, you can look at paintings of Brice Marden, and see his exploration of continuous line. He created hundreds of paintings investigating continuous, calligraphic, looping line. Working with this constraint, as well as a limited palette, Marden explored infinite possibilities within this idea. Sometimes he used sticks from trees to make his marks. His looping lines appear and disappear, creating lost and found lines. There’s a quality of endlessness in his continuous lines–it’s hard to tell where the line begins or ends.

Moving Through Challenges, Working in A Series A student was having doubts about a painting she created. She wondered whether it was all it could be or whether she was done with it. The painting was subtle and elegant. It was a predominantly middle value painting with minimal value contrast. The student said: I notice that contrast issues sometimes get me hung up. I tend to stay in the midvalues, so I’m trying to be more aware of value differentiation.

242

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I replied: In the end, everything depends upon what you want to express. The student realized she liked the painting and would add a few additions and let it live as is. Very rarely is a memorable artwork driven by technique as opposed to driven by a desire for expression. Of course, there are exceptions–Maurice Ravel’s Bolero was first conceived of as an exercise in orchestration technique. Sometimes our paintings bother us, and we second-guess them because they are unfamiliar. Other times they bother us because they are not expressing what we want or there are elements that we feel do not work. We are not going to love every painting we create but that does not mean the painting is trivial. It is a good practice to live with your works. Let them speak to you over time. A painting you do not like may grow on you. Or it may invite you to go further and make a decisive move on it. I think it is compelling to create a series based on a work you are grappling with. In this series, you can explore the questions and problems that arise and experiment with various responses to them. You may decide upon minimal value contrast in some, high value contrast in others, playing with a predominantly light value or dark value motif, and so forth. In the end what matters is how you feel about the piece. In the following vignette, Gisela Kissing discusses moving toward abstraction from a representational foundation as she works in a series.

AN EVOLVING SERIES

243

Vignette: Gisela Kissing Moving Toward Abstraction Rather Than Within Abstraction I come from a representational painting approach, and I’m captivated by Nancy’s lessons on Working in a Series. Eventually, I found my own slant on how to work in a series. I start with a representational painting. I use the idea of The Adjacent Possible to abstract form, line, and color. My eye wants to identify something representational. For me it is easier to start with a representational painting. Maybe I just do an outline, maybe I zoom in. This evokes a whole story about my journey to abstraction. I feel an inner conflict between abstract and representational. Here are some examples of the process of abstracting the scene–maquettes/starts, standing stones in Ireland abstracted, and rock faces in a formation I saw in Turkey. This first was during the module of working in a series my way in the masterclass. I find great freedom in honoring my impulse to paint representationally. When that is done and acknowledged, I feel free to experiment with abstracting the same subject. I have done quite a few series this way. No titles, just studies to experiment with.

244

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Gisela Kissing | Seven Starts/Maquettes, squares: 10” x 10”, rectangles: 8.27” x 5.83”

The subject I used here has a little story. I received a bunch of cut Amaryllis flowers for Christmas and decided to pollinate them with each other. So, a few of them developed big fat green seedpods. I loved the idea of life and death here, while the petals had wilted and changed from red to the dark purple and burgundy colors, new life was emerging inside the pod. I can see the infinite possibilities, when using the adjacent possible, how I could spend months just exploring that theme further. (I might do that if I find an interesting subject)

AN EVOLVING SERIES

245

I typically do various starts or a little series, to search for ways of abstracting a subject by starting representational, because it seems easier for me. Then I experiment and play with color, form, and line. In the painting below is, Ancient Wisdom of Drombeg, which is part of a small series of three works, starting representational. I painted this series for the module on rhythm during our masterclass and again, enjoyed the way it works for me.

Gisela Kissing | Ancient Wisdom of Drombeg, 16.5” x 23.4”

246

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

The third little series below, of Written in Stone and Echoes of Stones, I painted in 2019 after I completed the Studio Journey.

Gisela Kissing | Written in Stone, 16.5” x 22”

AN EVOLVING SERIES

247

My series moves towards abstraction rather than within abstraction.

Gisela Kissing | Echoes of Stones, 16.5” x 22”

For my representational work, I work on location or take photos first. I take a photo with artistic intention aforethought–I choose a particular angle or lighting or feature. I found the What If? question in The Adjacent Possible quite scary in the beginning. It took me straight into the unknown place. It was hard to say What If? to myself in front of a blank canvas.

248

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Gisela Kissing | Abstract, 16.5” x 11.7”

I found my own way to move into experimenting and exploring and applying other principles like rhythm, constraint, and color contrast one at a time, starting with a representational ‘seed.’ -Gisela Kissing

AN EVOLVING SERIES

249

38 - Many Adjacents This book is about the adjacent possible, but it is different than the everyday meaning of “adjacent.” When we think of something that is adjacent, we think of being nearby in physical space, like a neighbor’s house being adjacent to ours. But adjacency occurs in other realms than the physical, and we abstract the notion of distance implicit in adjacency to cover a broader variety of situations. It can be in “spaces” of color, of form, of value, or other characteristics. But it can also be about degrees of abstraction itself as in Picasso’s lithograph series The Bull, or of subjective meaning or history experienced by the artist. It can pertain to relations between art forms, in that sculpture could inspire music or architecture could inspire painting. For us the word means accessible, perceivable, and relatable. It’s a place we can go if we choose to do so. Australian artist Rhonda Campbell plays with different forms by exploring the intersection of tool making and creating 2-Dimensional and 3-Dimensional art. She creates utilitarian and decorative brushes, each one unique, that inform her works of art. Working in a series, Rhonda finds that one work from a particular medium informs the other and you just take it through whatever medium you wish to use. Rhonda says: I have a passion for working in this manner, whether on paper or canvasses on my painting wall. One work informs the other and sees that there is something to make the works sit together, although the results are very different.

250

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

It may be the colours and textures or the lines and shapes, but there is a common thread pulling them together, harmonising them. Rhonda loves the intersection of the 2-Dimensional and 3-Dimensional, bringing painting onto the 3-Dimensional and seeing how the 3-Dimensional takes her to new places in her paintings. It’s a back-and-forth conversation between painting and printmaking, painting and sculpture, painting and ceramics, painting and ‘Sister Sticks.’ Read below the fascinating story of the Sister Sticks and the interplay of how Rhonda affects the stick, and the stick affects her.

Vignette: Rhonda Campbell Gathering Possibilities I’ve been creating for a long time. I went to the National Art School and taught design in London and traveled extensively. I’ve been around for a hundred years! I’ve had numerous solo exhibitions and am represented by a major gallery, the Orange Regional Art Gallery in Orange. I pick up pigments while traveling–I’m a bit of a gatherer. I get inspiration from the Outback in Australia–noticing the difference between the red soil and the bright blue sky. I love making tools. My mother wasn’t well and lived 900 kilometers north of me. I’d fly there and stay with her a few weeks. She was always interested in what I created–and my sister and brother are both artistic too.

MANY ADJACENTS

251

I’d been using plain sticks for drawing and got interested in creating my own brushes. Pretty soon I started decorating them with materials influenced by travels to Africa and the things I saw there. My sister enjoyed creating these too. My brother would go out, gather sticks, and cut them for us, and we’d decorate them in front of mom. Some of them we called ‘Sister Sticks’ because my sister and I created them.

Rhonda Campbell | Sister Sticks

I keep them for decoration–they’re not tools to be painted with.

252

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Rhonda Campbell | Sister Sticks

They are decorative sticks to place on a coffee table.

Rhonda Campbell | Sister Stick & Pink Ceramic Bowl

MANY ADJACENTS

253

Some are bigger, thicker sticks. Notice the African patterns. You can lay them on a coffee table or a bench. The material is twine, raffia, strings, yarns, and fabric cut into strips and wound around the stick and glued. I like 3-Dimensional work. Even when I have a solo exhibition, I always try to have sculptural elements in it–like ceramics.

Rhonda Campbell | Sister Stick & Ceramic Bowl

The Sister Sticks come into play with some of the ceramics I’ve done. They sit on the ceramic bowl, my lotus bowl section. They’re rather crude. I’m a printmaker as well. I have a printing press and it’s quite large. At the back of our garage is our printmaking studio. The techniques I use in printmaking are the more painterly techniques. I do monoprinting, collagraphs, a bit of dry point etching, and combine those with chine collé.

254

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I use Perspex (Plexiglas) sheets to monoprint on and to make the collagraph plates. I can also engrave on that to form the dry point etching. I work with chine collé–it’s just collage pieces adhered onto the print. It’s all done in one process as you take the inks through, and you’ve got the collage piece in there as well. It adheres to the moistened paper, and it all sticks together. My painting comes through in my printmaking. I’m a looser person in printmaking. I make up my own rules.

Getting Started Making My Own Tools I started with raw sticks, and I didn’t decorate them. I still have my favorite stick I’ve had for a hundred years.

Rhonda Campbell | Favorite Stick

MANY ADJACENTS

255

It’s just a skinny, twisted stick and it’s now getting a knob on it, with buildup of ink and stuff because I haven’t cleaned it. The stick is transforming as more and more ink accumulates and it’s changing its markings. And I’ve got a favorite stick I decorated–it’s sort of a two-pronged stick with breaks in it and it makes amazing marks.

Rhonda Campbell | Pronged Stick

One Medium Informs the Other I work in a series. I love how my 2-Dimensional and 3-Dimensional art informs one another. I usually start with marks on paper. I create many starts. I work with the 6 maquettes. These exploratory works evolve into paintings on paper and then I move onto canvas and birch panels.

256

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

These paintings relate to and inform my printmaking. I take the works through printmaking and see what happens. Sometimes, I move into 3-Dimensional art by creating ceramic bowls, Sister Sticks, and sculptural forms. In my last solo exhibition, the one on the wetlands, I created 3 vertical plinths.

Rhonda Campbell | 3 Plinths–Vertical Wetlands, Heights 36”, 24”, 12”, Widths 4”x 4”

And I painted the plinths. MANY ADJACENTS

257

Rhonda Campbell | Painted Plinths, Heights 36”, 24”, 12”, Widths 4”x 4”

I have a passion for working in a series–whether on paper or canvasses on my painting wall. One work informs another and sees that something makes the works sit together, although the results are quite different. It may be the colours and textures or the lines and shapes, but there is a common thread pulling them together, harmonizing them. Working across mediums moves me into new territory- a landscape of unfolding surprise. -Rhonda Campbell

258

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

39 - Evolution Made Visible A key aspect of evolution is time–it is experimentation plus time. There are two primary ways that scientists study evolution. The first accelerates time, the second compresses it. The first way is to study living organisms that reproduce and evolve rapidly. This means tiny or even microscopic life forms such as fruit flies or bacteria that can go through many generations during an experimental study, if not the duration of a graduate student’s PhD studies. The second method is to study the fossil record, looking for evidence of life forms that turned to stone over eons of slow geologic processes, a footprint here or a jawbone fragment there. This is coupled with inference about what fits where in the evolutionary story as well as methods of establishing how long ago the life form in question was present. In art, the equivalent of the first method is the use of notebooks and maquettes, rapidly trying out and experimenting with many small works. The creations are small and quick, the fruit flies (drosophila) of the art world. The equivalent of the second method is the self-retrospective, the process of looking at multiple series of your creations over years of your life and thinking about what has changed over time. You dig down through layers of your own artistic geological history and reflect upon the processes that created that history. Some individual paintings can even create something that looks like a fossil record, particularly if they have many layers.

EVOLUTION MADE VISIBLE

259

Vignette: Cheryl Wilson An Evolving Surface The day I realized that the best paintings I created were from paintings that were already started, ones with texture and marks, was the day I realized the power of inspired creating or perhaps a better word is the adjacent possible. I love starting on a blank canvas but have found that is only the start of my journey on my painting. This under-painting is only the beginning. I have learned this is not where the magic happens for me. As each layer of paint, each mark, each scrape is added, these all are the catalyst that informs and entices my next mark which turns into my next layer. When the eye visualizes what is on the canvas, it is like the mind reacts to the marks, the colors, textures, and even the smallest drip of paint and the mind (from what I feel is the inner soul reacting to what it loves) starts to create the next mark, the next movement. For me the artist, it is from known favorite marks, such as the spiral, drips, loose marks from a long plein-aire brush with my non-dominant hand to create loose non-defined lines or circles. At one point, my fingers want to dip into the paint and paint on the canvas with thicker marks. I love tools to scrape into the paint to reveal a layer beneath, which can never have happened on a blank canvas. Similarly, working with others on commissions, I allow the client to become part of, not a kink in, the process. The client starts to react and feel emotions from within as they look at the partially finished painting.

260

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Their inner joy is sparked and often they do not know why. This is when I ask triggering questions like: Do you like landscapes? wildflowers? lines? circles? straight edges? From their known feelings, they tell me what they might want to see based on what they have already seen and from their inner joy. But these feelings could never have been evoked had the layer prior not triggered a response. I also know that by showing the layers I have completed and giving triggered prompts, I am limiting their response, and through this process I take them through an opening of their mind to explore more of what they like, by limiting their possibilities to encourage their true inner loves

Cheryl Wilson | Eating Sushi on 35th Street, 30” x 30”

EVOLUTION MADE VISIBLE

261

For me, the artist, it is like there are doors that cannot be unlocked yet until the layer created in front of me triggers the emotion of possibility. I now know that my best paintings are created by layers and layers of paint, intermixed with scrapes, loose marks and then some of those pushed back, more layers on top- and after many layers, the painting takes form into an artwork I love. Without these layers beneath, I could never get to my end layer that is the finished painting. I need each iteration, each evolution that I go through in the creating of my paintings. This repeating of my process I have learned–the recombination of the marks I love, those marks that trigger joy in my artwork–are created from what has sparked emotions in my soul before. -Cheryl Wilson

262

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Cheryl Wilson | Admiring Addy, 30” x 40”

EVOLUTION MADE VISIBLE

263

40 - Searching A painting must be free to wander. The best works are those that seem to simply happen. Michael Cutlip

Some have said that life is essentially a search process, and that we are different from animals only in the variety of our search, but not the essence. We search for resources, for mates, for information, for meaning, for inspiration. And art reflects life–it is a microcosm of our search, our journey. Rembrandt’s marks show how he searched the figure as he created, emphasizing marks here and there. Analyzing Rembrandt in this fashion is “mining the geological record to study evolution” as discussed in the previous chapter, applied to a single painting to learn about the artist who made it. Imagine searching as you’re drawing and painting and imagine finding your way as you create. It worked for Rembrandt; it can work for you. Allow yourself to start without knowing where you’re going. Do not be put off by the process of searching or diminish it by relegating it in your mind to be a form of scaffolding that will be removed without a trace to reveal the final pure work. Allow yourself to be surprised by what bubbles up from your unconscious. This is where the magic is.

264

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Vignette: Kathy Lavine Early on, around age 8 when I began studying art, I couldn’t pronounce or read many of the names of paints. Paradoxically, this was a real advantage, because I had an idea in mind and knew what I wanted and didn’t get hung up on names. I wouldn’t give up until I was able to mix paints and produce the blue I had in mind. It’s like cooking from smell and taste and not knowing the names of the herbs and spices, but I knew when it was right. I went to art school in three places–Boston, New York, and Los Angeles, and then went into a graduate program in design.

Kathy Lavine | Object on Table, 20” x 24”

SEARCHING

265

I got involved with computers early in their development and ended up using graphic design software and teaching graphical user interfaces to students majoring in computer science. I’m fascinated by Bauhaus and the connection between science and art. At one point in my 20s I almost left my body by accident. The first thing I became aware of was a magnificent light. Then I thought, How will I get these colors back down with me? I love Nancy’s course–what she brings and how she brings it. In my heart, she’s my first teacher. I’ve been able to get back into my studio and am doing things I haven’t done before and getting results I haven’t gotten before. Here in Vermont, people deposit stuff by the side of the road, the leavings of a yard sale. I picked up a couple of cans of paint to try a little Jackson Pollock pouring experiments. (I owe this to Nancy) I brought the paint to my studio, laid out canvas, shook and opened cans which were lumpy because they were so old. I’ll use them anyway. I came up with a large T-shape and felt I had hit upon something. I needed a clothesline to hang it up to dry. I put it on my studio wall. There was a blue in my mind to offset the lumpy yellow/beige of the old paint. I mixed it until I got what I wanted, and it became one of my favorite works. Recently I’ve been riffing off pictures in museum archives as seeds of compositions. This was purely for myself; I didn’t expect anybody to see it. I used images of people who had passed away because they couldn’t protest. I worked with sepia to stay true to the black and white spirit of the originals.

266

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I saw an image in a newspaper about a woman who symbolizes the emancipation of slaves celebrated annually on the island of St. Thomas. This amazing woman carried coal on her head for 3 cents a week in the late 1800s.

Kathy Lavine | Coal Woman, 48” x 36”

SEARCHING

267

I had already begun the painting (to the point visible under the poem) so, I called the celebration organizer brokenhearted, panicked and not wanting to create controversy. To my joy and relief, I was told that my painting was a celebration of what this image has come to symbolize. She hoped to get to St. Croix where the painting now resides and see it in person. Footnote: The painting was sold to an editor of a St. Croix newspaper. The adjacent possible opens me up to the idea of where I need to go next. Not knowing what it will become is important–to let it unfold on its own. This happens in between bodies of work that are thematically connected. -Kathy Lavine

268

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Kathy Lavine | Changes Over Time, 10” x 10”

Exploration: Wonder & Wander Go on a walk. Wander along and see what captures your imagination. Create a drawing or painting that reflects a state of wonder.

SEARCHING

269

41 - Flux One of the things about a painting is that it stays that way. And you can go back to it. And every time you go back to it, you’re different, but it’s the same. Brice Marden In nature as well as in art we find the life/death/life cycle. Flux is about change and motion. Even though many artworks such as painting and sculpture are static, they can still embody flux. Flux is more readily apparent in nature because time is a key component of the cycle, and we can experience it spread out in time. Imagine a walk in the forest. Tall, mature trees throw dense shade from canopies of dark green leaves gorged on sunlight, the forest floor dappled here and there with spots of sun. A few seedlings sprout new lime-green tender foliage on the forest floor, ones lucky enough to have a spot with a little more sun or perhaps growing out of the decaying duff of a long-since fallen tree, now giving life as a nurse log. We see all aspects of the life/death/life cycle in one view, from trees just starting life to ones long passed. On shorter time scales than the life of trees we see flowers come and go, leaves bud and grow and fall, insects and birds hatch and flit and vanish. In art, we generally see a work all at once. We must infer the time component, the process that brought it to what we see now. Artworks are created over time, but we experience them in an instant, in the present moment.

270

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

In flux, we activate the surface with mark making and then intuitively cover or veil some of those marks. We build up layers by reasserting with graphite, acrylic, marker, or charcoal and continue the dance of covering or veiling some of those marks in a sort of addition/subtraction dance. In working with line, we can explore flux–which is lines being born, lines developing, lines disappearing and dying away–kind of like the life/death/life cycle in nature where we’re born, we develop, and we die away into other realms. And so, on your canvas, you can have varying states of marks and shapes appearing, emerging, becoming less visible (aging), and finally disappearing altogether. It’s like the old joke about knowing a train has been by because it left its tracks. In painting, there is some truth to that joke, the act of painting being the train’s passage and the painting itself being the tracks.

Vignette: Elizabeth Vander Schaaf Flux - Dialogue and Discovery When my nephew asked if he could commission a 40”x 60” painting, I felt intimidated but said yes, with the understanding that I’d paint freely, and he’d be under no obligation. My first commission and first large canvas–scary. Thinking about flux lessened the fear, encouraging spontaneity and risk. Flux created an openended dialogue with the canvas, full of discoveries and decisions.

FLUX

271

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Early Layers, 40” x 60”

I could try any marks or strokes and then layer over the unwanted.

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Painting in Process, 40” x 60”

272

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

At one stage, it seemed a tugboat with yellow eyes appeared right in the middle of the painting. Ugh!

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Painting in Process, 40” x 60”

For months, I moved between the spontaneous and the considered, adding, subtracting, stepping back, seeing, wondering what if, and appreciating surprises.

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Painting in Process, 40” x 60”

FLUX

273

I noticed that veiling or fully covering even favorite parts strengthened the painting; the partially obscured or the hidden enhanced the whole. The entire process felt challenging, exciting, and full of parallels about how to live. Taking risks, taking care, saying yes, saying no.

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Ovation, 40” x 60”

274

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Best of all was seeing my nephew’s response when he saw the painting. -Elizabeth Vander Schaaf

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Ovation, detail

FLUX

275

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Ovation, detail

276

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

42 - The Evolving Menu There are no rules. You are the author, the composer, and the artist. You are on a journey of unfolding and expressing whatever is trying to come through you in your art.

The evolving menu is about new sets of choices generated by decisions you previously made. An example: Now that I have a PhD, a professorship is on the menu when it wasn’t before. Who decides what is on the menu? The Nobel Prize winning behavioral economist Richard Thaler and co-author Cass Sunstein wrote about the power of menus in their book Nudge. He wrote about how “choice architectures” (menus) have a large influence on what is chosen, even between menus that have all the same choices, just arranged differently. Therefore, the sequence of things matters. Not surprisingly, whatever occupies the top of the list has an advantage over things further down, just as the first page of search engine results has a large advantage over later pages. In the field of law, there’s the concept of primacy and recency. This is the idea that people remember the first thing and the last thing you say or do. It carries more weight than what you say in the middle. Primacy is like a first impression. The opening salvo matters–a lot. Recency is the closing argument, the summary, the surprising plot twist, the resolving chord. As a trial attorney, how you structure your arguments and the sequence in which you present them, the timing, has a big effect on the outcome.

THE EVOLVING MENU

277

You Create Your Own Menus As an artist, you have the power to create your own menus. At first glance, this issue of menubuilding or choice architecture shouldn’t be an issue because “you’re in charge,” but often the easiest person to fool is yourself. You can take things off the menu or suppress them almost without being conscious of it. The lesson of the evolving menu is to be extra sensitive and extra vigilant about new possibilities and to re-evaluate often.

Vignette: Nancy Hillis Deep Meaning in Early Artwork I came across my first sculpture made in my first private sculpture class at age 32. It was a heavily pregnant woman with a youthful body. But there was a surprise. Her face was 80 years old.

278

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Nancy Hillis | Old Woman, 18” x 7” x 6”

It was jarring. Something illogical slipped through the cracks. If I were hamstrung by logic and rules, I would say to myself, This doesn’t make sense. Not only that, but the sculpture isn’t unified. The head doesn’t fit the body. I must change it. But I didn’t. This cachectic, bony-faced, gravid old woman showed up. Even though her face was a mismatch with her body, I sensed she was part of a story–like a fairy tale waiting to unfold and confide its secrets.

THE EVOLVING MENU

279

Nancy Hillis | Old Woman, 18” x 7” x 6”

I wasn’t sure why she showed up, but to explore possible meanings of her form, I knew I must let her live, as is. It’s like a dream. Dreams often don’t make logical sense. They defeat the laws of gravity. There’s a suspension of disbelief. Yet, these nighttime missives are ghosts bearing gifts, if only we’ll take note and listen.

280

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I think it’s good to live with your early art. Allow all of it, especially that which is unfamiliar and uncomfortable–allow it to be. I’m still mesmerized by this strange creature who emerged unbidden. She lives on a bookshelf in my studio. I ponder her meaning across the decades since she first appeared. -Nancy Hillis

Vignette: Bruce Sawhill A story from our lives Many Americans have heard of the dish “Red Beans and Rice,” associated with the rich multicultural traditions of New Orleans and the Mississippi River delta. Like many delicious foods, it is peasant food, where resource constraints produce inventiveness. It turns out to be a good thing to make in a pressure cooker, because beans take forever otherwise. Since we have this device, red beans and rice has become a favorite of ours, hearty and nutritious. The very name of the dish implies that the mixture of sauteed onions, garlic, paprika, oregano, thyme, black pepper, cayenne pepper, red beans, and andouille sausage is to be served over rice, a crop that grows well in the swampy lands of the Mississippi delta. But there is another American tradition from other parts of the country, that of the baked potato, perhaps not as old as the Louisiana traditions, but well known.

THE EVOLVING MENU

281

So, we created a literal mashup. After boiling and then mashing potatoes, we ladled the red bean mixture over them, and topped it off with grated cheddar, green onions, and sour cream. This is the adjacent possible in action. Realizing the rice was a starchy substrate allowed the adjacent leap to the idea of another starchy substrate, namely potatoes. We “abstracted” rice to potatoes. Potatoes are known to pair with cheese, green onions, and sour cream, so the two traditions were married with the potatoes being the pivot point. Our stomachs were ecstatic with the result. The adjacent possible can be delicious as well as inspiring.

Exploration: Menus & No Rules Explore the idea of a menu regarding your art and life. Who authors the menu? What’s on it now? What would you like to see on the menu in the future? Now, explore creating with no rules. Take a rule you have learned and break it. Create a work of art based on breaking a rule of painting, writing, composing music, or whatever medium you desire. For example, you might write a story with no plot

282

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

compose music with erratic rhythms or none create paintings with visual interest in the bullseye center of the canvas create a painting using every color in your studio develop an artwork breaking as many rules as possible

THE EVOLVING MENU

283

43 - Cultivating Surprise When I go into the studio, if I already know what’s going to happen, it’s all over. Michael Cutlip

When we read a novel, we don’t want to know from the outset what’s going to happen. We don’t want it to be predictable. We want it to be riveting, to take us somewhere new. We want to feel something–we want to be surprised. Likewise, when we view a painting, we want to be wowed by it–something about it astonishes us. Something holds our attention like a page-turner. What secret will it reveal? When we first come to the creation of art, we tend to look outside ourselves for answers. We study how-to books on painting. We learn about tools, and we study technique. We think we need a strategy to create a successful painting. There is a basic level of technique required in art, just as in music, where it is highly beneficial to be able to read music or play an instrument if you want to compose music. But technique alone won’t get you to your deepest art. A picture forms in our head of how we want the painting to look. We study nature or the works of other artists and try to replicate them. But eventually, we desire something more. We want to experience a painting that reveals something unexpected.

284

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

We occasionally surprise ourselves out of dumb luck, but is there any way to “stack the deck” so we can create like this more often? Can we engineer the luck of surprise?

Making Room for Surprise There’s a German phrase lass ’was einfallen which translates literally to let something fall in. Colloquially it translates into “I’ll/you’ll think of something.” Leave breathing space in your life for reflection and replenishment so something new can fall in. In daily life, this means taking different paths to work or errands and not packing your schedule full. In art, it means being open and not having a rigorous plan. When you finally let go of needing to create a masterpiece–when you let go of perfectionism, of the “right way,” the approved way, of creating art–You open creative channels of playfulness, curiosity, awareness, and inquiry. Paradoxically, when you “let go,” you’re more likely to create art that surprises and delights you.

Vignette: Libby Gilpatric

I started several paintings last winter, some in sequences. Now I’m reviewing the painting parts of the art bundles in Nancy’s Studio Journey Masterclass, and the corresponding book chapters I had done earlier using watercolors, large papers, and acrylic paints–not yet focusing on, or at least aware of, the adjacent possible happening at every turn during the painting process.

C U LT I V AT I N G S U R P R I S E

285

Never felt freer while painting! I did a series of black on black with white line, making subtle connections between the almost invisible squares, in 24 Maquettes.

Libby Gilpatric | 24 Maquettes, 19.625” x 25.5”

Not having been able to paint, I cut out the squares and used them as starts for other paintings.

286

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Libby Gilpatric | Exploring the Square, 25.5” x 19.5”

On another large sheet I drew similarly but with slightly more obvious geometric exploring.

C U LT I V AT I N G S U R P R I S E

287

Libby Gilpatric | Decomposition, 25.5” x 19.5”

Then, the chart-like arrangement seemed to direct itself in Decomposition in a dis-order, eventually leaning and falling, to tumbling like dominoes, yet the interior parts were deconstructing. Now that you suggest the question, What a curiosity–this self-perpetuating destruction of these little squares. Was I surprised? Absolutely. I thought it both ingenuous and ingenious! I almost need a hangar to maintain the collection cut into small rectangles, for these are in my imagination becoming a fleet of flat airplanes, some of which may outgrow their two-dimensional quality.

288

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Each one will undergo a reinvention using selected variables–size, color combinations, value, and changes of shape or scale, different mark sizes, or maquettes–if still similar in pattern. I don’t want to allow myself to get too carried away into pre-forming those multi-dimensional ones. Am I already giving away my own surprise? In fact, I have already given away a couple of the originals as samples of a direction my art may be taking. I love imagining how these will turn out. Am I not imagining the adjacent possibilities? -Libby Gilpatric

Vignette: Andrea Graham

Inspired by The Adjacent Possible, I took the plunge! I had been “seeing” a painting in my head but after making the first mark, I realized that this painting had a life of its own–not even the same color palette I had envisioned! But “trusting myself” I went along and had the ride of my life. It took four days to complete (even though patience is not my strong suit) and then suddenly it felt complete. Thank you, Nancy! - Andrea Graham

C U LT I V AT I N G S U R P R I S E

289

Andrea Graham | The Conversation, 12” x 16”

Exploration: Noticing For the next few days, change your routines. Walk somewhere new. Take a different route. Pick up a book you’ve never read. Explore colors you avoid. What do you notice? How does it affect your art?

290

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

44 - Combinatorics & Re-Combinatorics There are lots of ways to get at the adjacent possible. Combinatorics and Re-Combinatorics is an excellent path. It gets at the exploration of combinations, the richness of possibility. Combinatorics is a branch of mathematics that studies and classifies patterns. A typical combinatorics question might be I have four playing cards, two jacks, and two queens. How many distinguishable ways can I lay them in a row if I don’t care about suit? The famous Stanford computer-science professor Donald Knuth said of combinatorics: “How do I love combinatorics? Let me count the ways.” The connection with art is that art is deeply involved with patterns, maybe not of playing cards but rather of lines and fields, colors, and values. Combinatorics meets the Adjacent Possible in the process of experimentation. How many different directions can I go from where I am now? What patterns are nearby and accessible to me? And a subtler question: What moves/patterns/strokes give me the most future options, the highest ability to keep on keeping on, the highest probability of generating surprise? You literally don’t want to paint yourself into a corner, but rather live in a space of unfolding richness. You don’t want to optimize too soon. How do you get a feeling for this rich space? Exercises in combinatorics are a good way to explore. Tearing up a painting into many smaller pieces and re-arranging them. We call this

C O M B I N ATO R I C S & R E - C O M B I N ATO R I C S

291

re-combinatorics in that one takes an existing work apart and puts it back together differently. Unlike Humpty Dumpty, you can put your painting back together again! Combinatorics and Re-Combinatorics can also be viewed as a cycle of construction, destruction, and reconstruction. Combinatorics may be consciously or unconsciously evolved in the original creation, but re-combinatorics is explicit and conscious. This process is mirrored in the endless life-death-life cycle of evolution.

Construction, Destruction, Reconstruction How does this process mirror life? And flux? Are parts of us falling away, being destroyed? Changing? Deteriorating? Then, returning in new forms? As in life, we can reflect these changes in our art. We can break our art apart and bring it back together, creating new structures, new combinations. Like Nature’s experimentations, some will persist, and others will fall away. Paul Cezanne was working during a major stylistic and philosophical transition in the arts and successfully referenced the past while being forward thinking and influencing those who came after him. His still-life paintings are a great example of his instinct to deconstruct and simplify the form, which later became a fundamental goal of the Cubist and Modernist schools of painting. Picasso said: “Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” Cubism, mostly associated with Pablo Picasso, reveled in geometric combinatorics. Unlike realism, Cubism deconstructs the subject matter into multiple superimposed points of view, geometrized and abstracted. Picasso, Georges Braque, and others exploited the possibilities of

292

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

depicting the three-dimensional world through Cubism. In literature, deconstruction is an analysis of the text that assumes it has no fixed a priori meaning. It’s relative and the meaning can change every time you read it because it involves the context. French philosopher Jacques Derrida first explored deconstruction in literary criticism in the 1970s and found that literary works can be interpreted as having no sole intrinsic meaning but may have many meanings, even contradictory ones.

Vignette: Maggy Herbert-Jobson Art in the Slow Lane Maggy’s love of cut, crop, and combinatorics took a big step forward, when Nancy Hillis and Bruce Sawhill shifted things up a gear and introduced the maths underpinning of playing with choice. Always fascinated by intuitive composition and seeking the ‘feel right’ in abstract art, the notion of breaking up a painting into squares or rectangles and recomposing felt exciting and challenging.

C O M B I N ATO R I C S & R E - C O M B I N ATO R I C S

293

Maggy Herbert-Jobson | Working in A Grid, 23.5” x 16.5”

294

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Add in a basic understanding of the maths which offers insight into the number of choices available for each of those decisions, the concept became highly engaging–something sounding simple was more like three-dimensional chess! Often art is completed swiftly with the end game in mind–the continual chase for “Is it good enough? Is it finished? Do I like it?” Re-Combinatorics is a game-changer–this isn’t a quick steak–this is a quietly simmering French stew, simply made but full of wonderful possibilities as the ingredients blend. The questions here are enticing–predominately the ever present “What if…?” The apparent simplicity of cutting up a painting or two into a series of squares (or rectangles) and then rebuilding them sounds easy. The reality is rather different–but enticing! Let’s say one is working with just 12 squares, the choices of placement are simply incredible–how about 479,001,600 options! Trying out one per second would take almost 18 years to try them all. Maggy enjoys playing this game on her dining room table. Setting out the squares on a wooden board and then quietly working on these, making choices, reviewing, changing, and trying again. Seeking a composition for which there are no words–but simply FEELS right.

C O M B I N ATO R I C S & R E - C O M B I N ATO R I C S

295

Maggy Herbert-Jobson | Value Study in Graphite, 20” x 18”

The choices are nigh endless. It can feel like a gentle meditation–go play and try yourself! -Maggy Herbert-Jobson

296

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

45 - Phase Transitions & Artistic Breakthroughs In this chapter we dig into the science behind creative breakthroughs and how these breakthroughs are related to the phenomenon of phase transitions in nature, such as ice turning to water. A phase transition is a balance between possibility and constraint. On one side of the transition is bewildering possibility, a swirling expanse of water. On the other side is a rigid prison with no options, a frozen block of ice. Let’s explore what’s happening behind the scenes of sudden transformations in nature, life, and art. When we experience a breakthrough in our artistic lives, it seems to happen overnight or in a split second, yet invisible forces are marshaling behind the scenes for a long time, like the benefits of “miles of canvas” and “10,000 hours” which we discussed in Chapter 19. As a block of ice reaches the point of melting, it is absorbing energy that weakens its matrix of bonds before they release. Coming at the ice/water phase transition from the other side, the ordering effect of crystallization prevails over the disordering effect of thermal motion where warm molecules move around more. But energy is leaving the system and the thermal motion is weakening, allowing crystallization to start. Once crystallization starts, it tends to spread. Each bit of crystallization increases the chances of the next adjacent bit.

PHASE TRANSITIONS & ARTISTIC BREAKTHROUGHS

297

Phase transitions are the physical processes of transition between the basic states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas–and they occur in a dizzying variety of contexts. But phase transitions are more general than water to ice. The idea can be abstracted to a balance of constraint and possibility. Two Hungarian mathematicians, Paul Erdös and Alfréd Rényi, studied such an abstract system around 1960 that was modeled as a connection of points and lines, in a way quite painterly. Lines tie points together, two at a time, and act as constraints. Erdös and Rényi discovered that eventually lines build upon lines and link most of the system together. Graphically, the phase transition that Erdös and Rényi discovered looks like this, where the plot shows the percentage of the points tied together as more lines are added:

Phase Transition Graph

298

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

As you go from left to right, more lines are added. The vertical axis measures the percentage of points connected to each other in a big network, a cat’s cradle of points and lines. The steep part of the curve on the graph is the phase transition where the assemblage of points is being knit together rapidly. It doesn’t happen right away (lower left) as lines are added, but then it cascades until almost 100% of the points are connected. We believe that creativity and the relationship between creative practice and creative result is akin to a phase transition of the type discussed above, leading to epiphany, where epiphany is a connected and cohesive whole, a sense-making self-narrative. The quietly invisible groundwork laid down by a disciplined creativity practice explodes forth one day as its disparate elements knit together, like a seed germinating and pushing forth into the sunlight. But creative practice only appears to explode forth. The paradox of this epiphany is that underneath this phenomenon has been a quiet and gradual marshaling of energies, points of perspective being knit together by lines of meaning. We believe artistic breakthroughs are informed by getting into your studio, creating lots of starts. experimenting. and stepping into the unknown. This is when you experience a phase transition. You are knitting disparate elements in your art. It finally comes together, apparently suddenly, when of course it is not sudden–you have been working at it all along. Most epiphanies are not sudden and surprising if you dig into them deeply, they are the result of lots of previous work, which the outside world may not recognize. We have a story of an artist friend who is a brainy woman–Vera Tchikovani. Vera is a retired professor who taught French and Russian literature at San Francisco City College.

PHASE TRANSITIONS & ARTISTIC BREAKTHROUGHS

299

For years, Vera created complex paintings, yet she wanted to loosen up and simplify her art. She desired the elegant simplicity Da Vinci spoke about. Vera wanted to move toward minimalism or post-minimalism yet struggled to allow this to happen. Even though Vera liked her art, she wanted to express paintings that were raw and immediate. One day, after many conversations, she said, Nancy, I had a breakthrough. Suddenly, I did it. My paintings are immediate. I just lay down a few strokes and I’m done. Vera’s breakthrough reminds us of phase transitions in art–how you can you spend “10,000 hours” and years of your life toiling away on miles of canvas, and it seems like not much is happening. This is the flat part of the curve where you see the image of the artist painting below.

Phase Transition in Art

300

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Yet one day things suddenly change. You experience a breakthrough in your art. This is the steep part of the curve encircled in red above. This is when you find yourself in a new place in your art. And on the far right of the curve, you saturate your awareness and are ripe to undertake a new hero’s journey of discovery and meaning–to experience the transformation again. Let’s hear Vera’s story in her own words.

Vignette: Vera Tchikovani

My name is Vera and I’m an abstract painter. I started painting late in life, after my early retirement from teaching. I was always good at drawing and loved art, but when I started my painting path I had to begin from scratch. I struggled with materials, techniques, and new concepts. For many painters this is a frustrating time. Even mixing colors is difficult! But I struggled and persisted. And then, one day while working on a painting I had an experience that changed my path, and I found a direction. Suddenly, I felt the painting was telling me what to do. I just had to “listen” to it and respond. It was as if the painting was painting itself. In that moment I realized one had to trust one’s instinct and “respond” to what is happening and not impose oneself on the process. This was a big shift!

PHASE TRANSITIONS & ARTISTIC BREAKTHROUGHS

301

It is at this time that I came across Nancy’s Artist’s Journey. I was one of her first students! Since then, I have become her faithful follower and admirer because she was speaking the artistic language I understood and could follow. Of course, one goes through many stages of development, some are short and some last a longer time, but in my case, with Nancy’s inspiration and support, I came to feel the importance of “trusting the process.”

Vera Tchikovani | Little Conversations #6, 6” x 6”

302

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I began to value the concept of constraint and simplifying.

Vera Tchikovani | Little Conversations #2, 6” x 6”

I think my biggest breakthrough in my personal development was the realization that I was drawn to simplicity and a certain minimalism. Simplifying seems to answer both my aesthetic search, as well as my personal, psychological needs.

PHASE TRANSITIONS & ARTISTIC BREAKTHROUGHS

303

Vera Tchikovani | Little Tale #12, 9” x 12”

I feel our world has become too busy, with too much stimulation! I came to realize I did not relate to art that had no breathing space. I began to feel that less is more.

304

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Vera Tchikovani | Transformations #1, 20” x 20”

This “simplifying,” a type of minimalism, can be in a simpler composition, constraint of lines and colors, or fewer layers and less paint. I have come to admire and use more fluid paints.

PHASE TRANSITIONS & ARTISTIC BREAKTHROUGHS

305

Vera Tchikovani | Transformations #9, 24” x 18”

Lately, I am painting more on paper. It’s a challenge to find the right gesture with less room for fixing it with new layers of paint.

306

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Vera Tchikovani | Transformations #10, 20” x 20”

Do I always paint like that? No, but that is my goal.

PHASE TRANSITIONS & ARTISTIC BREAKTHROUGHS

307

Vera Tchikovani | Songs of Autumn #4, 30” x 22”

At least, for now, since I believe in constant development, in the continual challenge and search.

308

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Vera Tchikovani | Transformations #7, 18” x 24”

Who knows what the “Adjacent Possible” can lead to!? -Vera Tchikovani

PHASE TRANSITIONS & ARTISTIC BREAKTHROUGHS

309

46 - Invisible Locks & Keys Certain words, turns of phrase, or analogies can unlock possibilities within that were previously inaccessible. One of the things I learned in psychiatry over years of sitting in session is that certain analogies or stories may resonate deeply with a person. As we knit meaning together, particular words and images can connect the dots for a person in a unique way. Something may click for you when you use certain words, imagery, or analogies. It’s akin to when your ski instructor says things like: Outer big toe, press down to initiate a turn Imagine a pencil between your knees, don’t drop it Un-weight your uphill ski Visualize the arc you will carve beforehand Always face the fall line and only rotate your bottom half There are many things an instructor can say to help you visualize how to carve a turn. A robust approach to learning requires not depending on any one of them. This applies to learning in general, not just skiing.

310

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Perhaps the words that unlock the magic are words that fit in with a preexisting structure of how you describe yourself to yourself. A teacher generally doesn’t have this information, so they must be ready with a box full of candidate keys. Eventually, there is a moment when everything clicks. I believe this can be mapped onto phase transitions and the click might be, I get it. I understand it cognitively. It has knit together in my mind into a coherent whole. Think back on the points and lines of Chapter 45. The click might be physical–I get it in my body. My body is now doing the thing it could not do before. It’s akin to removing barriers and physical constraints. If you reach in and pick the right key to your lock, suddenly, the lock opens, things work. You get into a kind of groove. You were riding roughshod and suddenly you’re in a flow state. I remember taking a private ski lesson from a top ski pro. She taught the pros how to teach. A pro’s pro, she taught women’s skiing workshops. We were skiing down a challenging slope and she said: Women are often perfectionists as skiers. They focus on every single turn and try to make every turn perfect. What if you allowed yourself let go and relax into a rhythm? Some of your turns are not going to be great and some of them will be, and it’s okay. Don’t sweat any particular turn. Talk about revelatory. It changed my skiing. This pro’s advice is akin to, “Lots of starts, don’t sweat a particular painting” that we discussed in Chapter 18. It is about the rhythm, the line of going down the slope, the creative process. Looking back on this, I realize this story about rhythm in skiing maps onto the artistic practice of many starts, miles of canvas, working in a series, and allowing for ugly paintings.

INVISIBLE LOCKS & KEYS

311

When we try to make every painting perfect, to create a masterpiece, it is like trying to make every turn perfect in skiing. It makes us tighten up. You begin to understand that it is not about every turn being perfect, it is about the overarching rhythm of the experience. There is a key for the lock. Different people have different locks. Someone says something and it unlocks something new–it opens something waiting to be expressed. There’s a story about Georgia O’Keeffe who was struggling with her art. She took a summer workshop and the teacher said something along the lines of–Why don’t you just go big with colorful shapes? Yes, even Georgia O’Keeffe took workshops. And it broke it open for her. This was the beginning of her series of flower paintings. The teacher hit the target and you never know when or how that’s going to happen. It’s like being a skier and someone says the one thing that unlocks it for you and suddenly, you’re skiing with ease. It opens it up. Bruce has a story about invisible locks and the keys to open them, associated with teaching swimming to toddlers as a teenager. One of the biggest challenges in teaching little kids is to convince them to put their face in the water. Different things worked for different children. Bruce had a set of a dozen keys to help them like: Blow bubbles Pretend you are looking for something on the bottom of the pool I am going to put something on the bottom of the pool. Can you tell me what it is? It’s time to put your face in the water of creativity and allow the keys to unlock the magic.

312

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Vignette: Betty Franks My earlier paintings were exploration. I didn’t really understand what I was doing. I was putting down marks and colors in a way that, to me, didn’t make much sense. I sold some of that artwork, but not a whole lot of it. I believe I didn’t sell much of this work because my heart and soul weren’t in all those pieces, because I hadn’t quite found what I wanted to express. I didn’t really know what I was doing, especially in the beginning of painting abstract. Then something emerged for me and began to flow. Another thing that helped open the faucet is something I accidentally discovered. It was summertime in California and hot. So, I brought my studio inside from the garage, which was at least a bit cooler. My house has an open concept floorplan. The living room/family room was in front of me. I had a TV on the wall and if I sat on one side of the dining room table to work, I could see the TV. I would go online and listen to stories about artists, whatever was coming up on the social media feed because I didn’t want to go and change it, so I watched whatever the algorithm served up. It was a series of different artists talking about their work. I discovered I could listen and paint at the same time, and not only was it not a distraction, but it also actually helped a great deal. I branched out–it could be social media, a podcast, or audio books. My left brain engaged with the words spoken while my right brain was freed up to create. There was no judgment or agency in my painting because I was busy listening to the words.

INVISIBLE LOCKS & KEYS

313

Suddenly paintings are coming out of me. What is going on here? It took a little while to analyze what was happening and say, Oh, that started when I was sitting at my dining room and listening to something constant in the background, and it wasn’t music, it was words being spoken. And to this day I do my best creating in that environment. Most of my painting time I’m listening to a podcast, audio book, or a talk on social media– something where words are being spoken and I’m not fully listening. It’s amazing what our brain can receive even when we’re doing something else. I can look at some of my paintings and remember, Oh, I was listening to this content. I love romance. I like listening to a series of them so I can look at a painting and go, Oh yeah, I remember that. The words and stories I hear while painting are like a trail of breadcrumbs that help me remember where I’ve been and how I felt. It’s like I’m a little bit disconnected from my artwork when I’m listening to those stories, yet at the same time, I’m a little disconnected from the story being told in my artwork. It’s this fine balance where I’m floating in between the two. When I turned 50, I did not like abstract art. I had no connection to it. But then I started seeing abstract art that interested me, especially when I was doing the mixed media work. I think I was on a vacation somewhere. And I remember walking into a place and seeing abstract work and I just fell in love with it. That falling in love moment–I remember the store, but seeing that art and I was just like, wow, I really love that. I felt this connection to that artwork. And it was abstract. And then I realized that when I was younger, I wasn’t seeing abstract art that I liked. It’s not that I didn’t like abstract art. I just didn’t find a type of style that I could connect to. And during my corporate years, I wasn’t out looking for abstract art. I wasn’t in the art scene.

314

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

But eventually I started creating mixed-media work and began opening my eyes more. When you’re doing art, any type of art, it opens your eyes, and you start noticing more. And that’s when I started noticing abstract art that I was falling in love with. And that’s why at some point I just said, this is what I want to do. I just felt drawn to that connection. And at the time I said to myself, I don’t know what my abstract art is going to look like, but I know I want to do it. I want to express myself in some way, but I don’t know what that is. It’s both great that you can identify what moves you, but also so frustrating that it takes so many years trying to figure it out. At some point you must put blinders on and not look at everybody else. Just stay focused on creating because the more you do, the more you figure it out. There are no shortcuts. Prior to my 50th birthday, I was creating mixed media pieces. For my actual 50th birthday, I created 50 original mixed media pieces that I gave away. I was on social media at that point, and I said for my 50th, I’m giving away 50 free pieces. But creating a painting that didn’t have collage in it and all of that didn’t come until a few years later. -Betty Franks

INVISIBLE LOCKS & KEYS

315

Betty Franks | City of Violets, 36” x 36”

316

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Betty Franks | Endless Summer, 36” x 36”

INVISIBLE LOCKS & KEYS

317

Vignette: James Edward When I first started to paint, I was six years old. This was 1960. My parents bought me a paint by numbers set. You have all these numbers to paint, and you have these beautiful images from Monet or Rembrandt. So, I started painting. I didn’t like to follow the numbers. I liked to paint my own ideas–instead of a beautiful moss or whatever, that’s when I thought I might like to paint abstract. Fast forward 55 years and I only started again, four years ago. Somehow, I came back to painting. I love to paint. I found what I love to do. After I retired, I started designing and making furniture. It got expensive and was hard to sell. I couldn’t get into the market. I was a one-man band. So, I began creating sculptures and started with laser sculpting. I drew my designs on the computer and had them cut by laser, on acrylics or steel. Then, I felt I had to do something because I didn’t think I was evolving much. After a couple of months, a friend said, Look, go to this guy. He’s an art consultant who’s won a lot of prizes and he can give you some pointers and goals of where you should go. So, I showed him my art from my computer, and he said, Yeah, you know, what’s amazing about your sculptures? They look like paintings. That was interesting. I lived next door to a university that had drawing courses and I said, Yeah, maybe that’s what I need–to draw better, because I don’t draw anything at all. And the teacher said, Look, you should go analog instead of digital. And that’s when it hit me. I got the paints, the brushes, and the canvasses and just started.

318

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I remembered these words: Your sculptures look like paintings, and You need to go analog. Two angels showed up. It was like a steppingstone–I had to go from one step to another step. It opened everything up. -James Edward

James Edward | Starting

INVISIBLE LOCKS & KEYS

319

Vignette: Dana Dion As a kid I moved around a lot. I felt I never belonged anywhere. My trajectory included East Africa, Israel, the UK, Canada, and Australia. I started painting landscapes, to create a place where I belonged that could not be taken from me. My paintings used to be much more representational. I was looking for a place to call mine. And I was particularly fond of trees. I painted a lot of them. A mentor gave me an interesting exercise that moved me from representational landscapes towards abstraction. He said, Every time you have an urge to paint a tree, put it over here on another canvas. So, I had a set of canvasses full of trees and another set without trees. I started removing explicit symbology from my paintings in a conscious way and began to evolve towards non-representational art. -Dana Dion

320

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Dana Dion | Listening to The Waves, 60” x 48”

INVISIBLE LOCKS & KEYS

321

Dana Dion | Whiter Shades of Pale, 48” x 60

322

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

”

Dana Dion | Structural Hints, 78” x 60”

Reflection: Breakthrough Words Write examples from your life where certain magical words, phrases, stories, or analogies helped you have a breakthrough in your art or life.

INVISIBLE LOCKS & KEYS

323

47 - Symmetries: Enantiomers & Inverses One of the most powerful combinatorial tools we have in art is symmetries. Humans have evolved to be good at detecting patterns because it has gotten us a long way in an evolutionary sense. We’ve avoided becoming food while being able to find food, and that has to do with making sense of patterns. We are particularly good at connecting some patterns to other ones, which can be helpful in recognizing danger that is unfamiliar but related to something we’ve experienced. You can’t learn from a fatal experience, so avoiding one is a good idea, and being able to recognize adjacent patterns allows us to carry on. Two of these related classes of patterns are symmetries and enantiomers. An enantiomer (from the study of the configuration of molecules in chemistry) is a mirror image where an object can be like something else except reflected about some axis. When we look in the mirror at ourselves, we are reflected around a vertical axis, our left eye shows up on the right side. Our prehistoric selves could relate a bear with its right paw raised to the bear they escaped last year that had its left paw raised. They both translate into “Run!” An inverse is like a photographic negative, light becomes dark, dark becomes light. It is a kind of symmetry in a space of values rather than the physical space of a mirror image. In a negative, values are reflected around some central value. Using symmetries is a reliable and powerful way of exploring the Adjacent Possible, the trusty old hammer in our toolbox of ideas.

324

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Vignette: Nancy Hillis One day in my studio, I looked at my 48” x 60” plywood painting board and noticed black paint drips and lines and a bit of color on the board that intrigued me.

Nancy Hillis | Painting Board, 48” x 60”

I thought, Since I’m drawn to what happened over time on this board, why not explore this in a large painting?

SYMMETRIES: ENANTIOMERS & INVERSES

325

I began a series of 48” x 60” paintings informed by random splashes and lines of paint from hundreds of painting starts and studies on the painting board.

Nancy Hillis | Board Series 1, 48” x 60”

A series of predominantly light value paintings with horizontal lines and a bit of color splashes emerged.

326

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Nancy Hillis | Board Series 2, 48” x 60”

One day, I was looking at one of these paintings on my board and had an aha moment. What if I flipped this and created a kind of symmetry? Enantiomers from Organic Chemistry flashed into my mind, and though this is not a literal interpretation of a chemical mirror image, in fact it’s more like an inversion, still, the concept of enantiomers drove it. Artistic license anyone? What if I flipped this mostly predominantly light value work, this series, to a predominantly dark value painting with white lines? Symmetries don’t have to be in physical spaces like a literal mirror image, they can be in abstract spaces like color or value. This is the first painting that emerged from this question.

SYMMETRIES: ENANTIOMERS & INVERSES

327

Nancy Hillis | Board Series 3, 44” x 54”

I wanted to explore this way of working again, black on black and minimalist, but now bringing in white, horizontal lines. There’s a predominance of horizontal lines and a few diagonal and vertical lines. The next painting that emerged revealed big, swooping, white continuous lines.

328

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Nancy Hillis | Board Series 4, 44” x 54”

The painting that emerged next is a minimalist, black on black painting. I used the ‘Big Momma’ brush, my favorite sash brush, and moved in with continuous line, employing black Latex house paint as well as carbon black acrylic paint with gloss medium mixed into it on a black gesso ground.

SYMMETRIES: ENANTIOMERS & INVERSES

329

Nancy Hillis | Board Series 5, 44” x 60”

It began with subtle, wide, continuous lines in translucent black contrasting with thin, white and black, horizontal, vertical, and a few slightly diagonal lines. I was going to go back into Board Series 5 with more horizontal linear elements, but ended up liking it so I thought, No, I’m going to leave this in a raw, minimalist state. (This is a case of an evolving series leading to a new series, perhaps the next series will be minimalist black on black, continuous line paintings). This series morphed into the painting below–combining curvilinear and horizontal lines.

330

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Nancy Hillis | Evolution of A Series, 48” x 60”

From there, Evolution of A Series 2 emerged.

Nancy Hillis | Evolution of A Series 2, 48” x 60”

SYMMETRIES: ENANTIOMERS & INVERSES

331

Later, I felt the urge to explore value maquettes–this time, white on black–inspired by this series.

Nancy Hillis | White on Black Value Maquettes, 48” x 60”

Instead of getting caught up in one painting, working in a series took me somewhere new. I had no idea a painting board would lead to creating symmetries in homage to Organic Chemistry and that this would lead to increasingly minimalist, black on black continuous line paintings. Nor did I know that Evolution of a Series would emerge from these explorations. The Adjacent Possible took me to another edge, evolving within a series and evolving into a new series. This is far more freeing and exciting than focusing on one painting and trying to create a masterpiece. -Nancy Hillis

332

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Exploration: Symmetries Take a sheet of paper. Draw a line down the middle. On one side, create a painting, working with 1-3 constraints. It could be: stream of consciousness mark making variations on a letter or number (for example, variations on the number 5–in various sizes, orientations, thickness, thinness, wholeness vs. fragmentation, chromatic vs. muted) working with a one-color palette Now, on the other side of the paper, create a painting based on symmetries–it could be an enantiomer (a mirror image) or an inversion–a mirror image with slight variations.

SYMMETRIES: ENANTIOMERS & INVERSES

333

48 - The Elegant Solution An important concept threading through everything we do as creators and innovators is the concept of constraint. Whenever you’ve got a complex topic with essentially infinite variables (like color), it’s important to engage the elegant solution as exemplified by Occam’s Razor as discussed in Chapter 32. I believe humans have a highly evolved sense of the efficient use of resources rooted in evolutionary dynamics, and they find chaotic and wasteful expression distasteful, even if it is unrelated to survival. In Chapter 45, we discussed the abstracted idea of a phase transition, the transformation from a cloud of disconnected points to a connected whole as more and more constraints/connections were added. I believe all creatives, whether authors, composers, or artists are related in that they want to tell some sort of story in their medium of choice. A story links disparate perceptions or events into a cohesive whole, a whole that is different and more than the sum of its parts. We not only want to tell the story, but we also want to do it in a way that is powerful, meaningful, and compelling, and I believe this has to do with constraint and efficiency. We want our story to make sense, but just.

334

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Music has given us the idea of a work that is durchkomponiert, or through-composed. A throughcomposed piece of music was originally one in which sung verses were accompanied by unique music, unlike a hymn, for example, where the verses change but the music repeats. Requiring the same music for different verses, as in a hymn, is a strong constraint, but that constraint is weakened when every verse gets different music, as in durchkomponiert. We’re coming at constraint from two sides: one side is that of imposing constraint and the other side is reducing constraint. A durchkomponiert piece uses one form for the whole thing, just enough to hold it together. It is the absolute minimum of constraint required to achieve a coherent expressive whole, Occam’s Razor in action. In architecture, the elegant through-composed idea of one connected inseparable whole is exemplified in Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House. Utzon worked with the concept of monocoque, meaning one shell. Unlike most previous architecture which is easily decomposable into horizontals, verticals, and arches, the shell-like structures of Utzon’s work, informed by the concept of monocoque, are the architectural equivalents of durchkomponiert. In art, some paintings are complete in and of themselves throughout all phases of development, they are through-composed from the start. How do we increase our chances of producing such work, and can the Adjacent Possible help us? We address this in the next chapter.

THE ELEGANT SOLUTION

335

Vignette: Brittany Lyn When life gets complicated, I find myself reaching for black and white acrylic paint. The complexity of colour feels like too much at times. In choosing to work with the constraint of just black and white, my expression arises through variations in mark making and the energy of my brushstrokes.

Brittany Lyn | Experimenting with Constraint, 22” x 30”

336

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Despite returning to the same starting point of black and white, there is nothing static about this process–energy shifts and marks evolve over time. Similarly, when working with watercolour, I gravitated towards a single tube of Payne’s Gray.

Brittany Lyn | Experimenting with Constraint In Watercolour, 3” x 3.5”

THE ELEGANT SOLUTION

337

I embrace the way water carries the pigment in unexpected ways. All I control is the proportion of lightness to darkness and let water do the rest. It is reassuring to know that in the search for simplicity, worlds of infinite possibility nevertheless open before us. -Brittany Lyn

Reflection: Durchkomponiert Reflect on paintings or experiences that have been laminar, durchkomponiert, through-composed at every stage, never under- or over-constrained.

338

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

49 - The Art of The Possible Being an artist is about continually evolving your art. It’s about cultivating your fullest self-expression and getting to the elusive deepest work your heart yearns to create.

The big idea of this small book is that to create your deepest art, you must cultivate being surpriseable and nourish discovery rather than merely trusting luck and hoping for the best. There are principles you can embrace to weight the dice to increase the chances of things going your way. Evolving your art is one way of cultivating surprise. You are architecting luck. In Chapter 45, we looked at a phase transition between connected and disconnected points and lines and related that to constraint. In Chapter 48, we discussed the role of constraint and simplicity, and that William of Occam, a contemporary of Dante Alighieri, seven centuries before us, says a theory or story should be as simple as possible. Einstein said: “A model of the world should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.” What does this mean for artists?

The Sweet Spot If we return to the phase transition plot in Chapter 45, you can see there is a steep part in the middle of the curve–this is our “sweet spot” because it balances possibility with coherence. This is where each new line connecting a pair of points contributes the most to a connected whole.

THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

339

In our abstract system of points and lines, we start with a cloud of disconnected points and no lines. As we add lines between randomly chosen pairs of points, we tend to have disconnected pairs with no points in common. Everything is isolated, nothing is adjacent. But as we continue to add lines, something special happens, a cascade of connection. This is the phase transition where the addition of relatively few lines knits all those disparate pieces together. Eventually, the system of points and lines weaves together and becomes a web. This happens in the steep part of the phase transition curve, the curve connected to artistic breakthrough, where each new line adds the most connectivity. Finally, on the far-right part of the graph, new lines have a hard time finding unused points to connect. They are most likely to lay on top of existing lines thereby being redundant. The novelty has been mined out and we’re in the regime of diminishing returns. Our model of creative association and sense making leaves behind the land of disconnected points but halts before the land of diminishing returns where novelty is harder to find. Our challenge is to stay at the sweet spot, to prevail against forces that seek to move us to a static place.

Surfing the Wave If points are akin to artistic concepts and links are connections between them, if we keep adding links without adding points, we’ll end up in the saturated part of the curve. Since our minds are connection machines, the only way to avoid this inevitability is to add new concepts and experiences as fast as we connect them. This is the motivation for the adjacent possible. We want to surf this wave as long as we can.

340

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Painting the same painting repeatedly is a kind of “success disaster” that takes us to the righthand side of the curve, over-connected and over-constrained. It’s obvious what to do but we’re not evolving. Experimenting without learning is just a collection of experiential points on the far left-hand side of the curve. Evolution keeps us in the middle. Experimenting, exploring, and learning. In practical terms, this means cultivating the Adjacent Possible in your art. Seeking the novel, but the novel that can be related to what you already know, to forming a link of meaning in your perception of your work.

Vignette: Jane Lombard My artistic life has been full of “Lass ‘was einfallen.” In fact, my early life before medical school was also unpredictable, full of geographical, environmental, and personal change, but it settled into the life of a cardiologist in a comfortable suburb after many years of medical training. It’s as if I transferred the nonlinearity from my professional life as a cardiologist to my life as an artist once my professional life was established. I’ve lived in the same community for over 30 years now. Before that I moved around a lot, from growing up in Libya, schooled in a British prep school, and then transplanted at 14 to a high school in the rural American South. I found rural America and the Bible Belt were very different than my multicultural background. In retrospect, there were many points of adjacent possible.

THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

341

Where I settled in California became ground zero for the socioeconomic upheaval of Silicon Valley. Aspects of this upheaval turned out to provide artistic inspiration for me. When I first arrived in my hometown, it was not yet transformed by a fire hose of wealth. Old “mom-and-pop” stores populated the downtown, life was easygoing with a strong sense of community. But this began to change rapidly. Old buildings and houses were torn down to make way for bigger/newer/richer/fancier, catering to a new populace. I felt that something important was being lost. I turned this feeling into artistic inspiration. I began to paint old buildings that were going to be torn down, to capture their sense of place on canvas.

342

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Jane Lombard | Changing Neighborhoods #1, 30” x 30”

This felt like the “adjacent possible” in action. An upsetting phenomenon became a rich source of inspiration because I was open to it and willing to consider it from perspectives other than the material and the socioeconomic.

THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

343

Jane Lombard | Changing Neighborhoods #2, 30” x 30”

Another artistic inspiration came years later, with the transformation of Silicon Valley well underway. The amount of wealth generated by the tech industry was so enormous that real estate prices exploded for many miles around, with a little apartment costing as much as a grand home with grounds in other states or countries. A side effect of this was the emergence of working people who could not afford anywhere to live, so a whole new segment of population emerged–people who lived out of cars and trucks and recreational vehicles. (RVs)

344

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Jane Lombard | Neighbors, 10” x 20”

The housed population denigrated the vehicle dwellers, characterizing them as shiftless bums who were not contributing to society. But, in fact, most of them were employed. They were the people cleaning houses, serving food, and trimming gardens. There were even families living in cars with children’s bikes and toys surrounding them. By way of one City Council decision after another, vehicle dwellers were banished from nearby communities. Eventually they were only allowed in one town, which was adjacent to mine. And that was under siege, also! I wanted to make people aware of the plight of the vehicle dwellers, to evoke empathy. I asked several vehicle dwellers for permission to take photos of them, then used those as a basis for paintings.

THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

345

Jane Lombard | Neighbors #2, 30” x 30”

346

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Just last year I was asked by the Rotary Club (an American philanthropic civic organization) to give a talk online about women and cardiology. I got on the call and my slot wasn’t up yet, so I listened to a woman talking about having an art show to raise money for civic munificence. She was talking about painting bears, fiberglass mannequins (bearequins?) of various sizes. This is an urban trend in some cities, where models of creatures, real or fictional, are scattered about an urban landscape, each painted by a different artist. It started with cows in Zurich, Switzerland in 1998 and spread to many other cities as it was effective as a fund-raiser and as a tourist magnet, since the painted statues were sold to collectors afterwards. I offered to front the money to buy a fiberglass bear for their fundraiser, then asked the presenter if they had artists lined up to paint them. They didn’t. I proposed to paint the bear, too. I ended up painting three of those in a style reminiscent of stained glass, geometric patterns of color.

THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

347

Jane Lombard | Bear, 62” x 20” x 20”

Unbeknownst to me at the time, painting these bears would later influence my landscape paintings–the adjacent possible, indeed.

348

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Jane Lombard | Landscape, 30” x 30”

But I digress. These bears were sold at auction. I evidently got the ball rolling with my purchase of the first bear, as there ended up being 62 total. A large amount of money was raised, and it ended up closing a loop of personal significance to me–it was enough money to buy laptops for many of the school age children who were growing up in vehicles and who needed them to attend school remotely in the time of COVID. Disparate pieces of my artistic life knit together by the thread of social conscience. -Jane Lombard THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

349

Vignette: Maggy Herbert-Jobson Size Matters In another chapter of this book, there is a story about Wizards–good and bad and the effect these powerful creatures can have on little people of all ages. This story is about a little person whose love of art was squashed and limited by a powerful wizard. She was at the age of six and still in her kindergarten class, he told her that she was far too messy to be allowed to paint and that it would be much much better for her to do maths and English and other such subjects. And so, she did. She also learnt much best to keep her struggles hidden, because she was very very messy and just not good enough. And so, her life continued, she remained messy, but she learnt to do maths and English and other subjects quite well. And for her, exams were less scary than class, because no one close could judge her work. And so, her life continued–and in time she became pretty successful as an aviation consultant, but still, she didn’t paint. To the outside world, including her clients in the UK, Eastern Europe, and the US, there was an image of someone confident and able, but inside there was still the young child, scared and wanting to please others and one always working harder and longer to do well. But, despite her successful international career, she still didn’t paint. But then one day she had a serious riding accident and life changed on a dime. Some marginal

350

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

feeling began to be lost, but a new door opened too. Some fifty years since leaving her kindergarten, someone in spinal rehab invited her to play with paint, but that gentle invitation felt scary, because she knew she was still very very messy. But tempted by some wonderful sightings in the art room and the kindness and encouragement of the therapist, nervously she began to play–but only if alone and safely hidden from the judgment of others. Little journals began to be hidden in her briefcase, a needed antidote to boardroom warfare and so, whilst flying to Moscow, Bucharest, New York, India or wherever, she slowly began to amass a little collection of raw studies and feelings. In retrospect, that accident proved to be a catalyst for change–still working internationally, but a longing for a different way of being, but that goal as yet unlabeled. In retrospect, it was the beginning of a quest to become a painter. Still scared of being judged in a group setting, she sought solo tutors–and in time was lucky enough to be adopted by a wonderful group of mainly professional painters, who were encouraging and kind, where learning was by osmosis rather than class. And so, a big day came, when she had been encouraged to enter a painting into one of the UK’s major national exhibitions–one of her works was selected by the prestigious Royal Institution of Painters in Watercolour. It felt like a red-letter day, but her painting was just 6 inches square. And so it was that small seemed safest in the scary world of painting. And so, as she began to paint and exhibit more widely, size still mattered and small felt safer! And then one day, amid uncertainty, as she was attempting to transverse the terra incognita of using social media for art, a new guide showed up, the transformational wizard who is Nancy Hillis–Maggy sensed already that the success of her pathway ahead would be determined more

THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

351

by belief in possibilities rather than technique alone, but she knew building such confidence would be a challenging and complex process. And so, she began to explore the offerings of a new programme called Studio Journey and found there a guide with credentials and gifts differing that was very special. Initially learning is often an act of faith, but on this occasion, it soon became very clear that the Guide had the know-how, as she quietly and gently began to teach the group ‘how to fish’. Change wasn’t immediate, but it was solidly built and incremental. And so, brick by brick, Start by Start, activated canvas by activated canvas, Maggy slowly began to accept the raw and ugly as part of the journey and gradually the fear ebbed away–and excitement came in. And incredibly people began to like her raw and ugly–and yes. even her messy! And now nearly a year into the Masterclass, she has just been invited to do a commission for a wonderful bank foyer by a client who loves her raw and powerful work. He wants something at least 4 x 6 foot or bigger… So, size does matter. Small can be incredibly beautiful, but scale should be a matter of choice. The shy kid who was denied a place at the painting table, has now been invited to paint big for a public space. Thank you to Nancy, Bruce, and your team and for two incredible years on the journey of Studio Journey Masterclass–and with the great team of artists who are fellow journeyers. There be magic in Santa Cruz! -Maggy Herbert-Jobson

352

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Maggy Herbert-Jobson | The Words Unwritten, 23.5” x 33”

THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

353

Maggy Herbert-Jobson | On the Silk Road, 17” x 23.5”

Exploration: Sweet Spot Reflect on the sweet spot that balances possibility and coherence–the place of aliveness and experimentation.

354

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

50 - Synesthesia Synesthesia is a fancy name for when you experience one of your senses through another. The word “synesthesia” has Greek roots. It translates to “perceive together.” People who have this ability are called synesthetes. Synesthesia isn’t a disease or disorder, but it is an uncommon, genetically linked trait estimated to affect only 5% of the population. For example, you might hear the name “Lorraine” and see green, or the name “Maggy” and see numbers. Or you might read the word “horse” and taste watermelon. And while it may seem easy to make up, there’s proof that it’s a real condition. This phenomenon is of significance to visual artists because one of the most common responses is to see letters, numbers, or sounds as colors. Research shows that synesthesia usually starts in childhood and that the “cross-sensory” phenomena stay constant through time. Synesthetes also display a correlation with being female, left-handed, and involved with art, music, or writing. The 1940 Walt Disney animated film Fantasia evoked many synesthesia-type experiences, though it is not known if that was intentional or not. The British composer Arthur Bliss wrote A Colour Symphony in 1921-22, with the four movements being Purple, Red, Blue, and Green. Bliss was not a confirmed synesthete, but his experience is important to us because he was stuck at one point, unable to start composing a new piece. Scrounging around for ideas, he came across a treatise on heraldry and the significance of various colors in that context, and that provided the inspiration to get started.

SYNESTHESIA

355

Even if you’re not a confirmed synesthete, thinking across senses and media can be a powerful source of inspiration. Abstract artist Margaret Brand wrote the poem Synesthesia which won an award and was published in the Seamus Heaney Anthology 2021.

Vignette: Margaret Brand Poem by Margaret Brand Synesthesia

I bit into the silver light It pinged like sherbet Yellow traffic lights Taste terribly sour My blue mood tipped into the edges of the sky Making it streaky Purple prose stains

356

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Under my nails Lavender scent Spiralled into veins of worn out hand Lying on the sheet His red anger dressed with oil Was still bitter in the salad Ancient clanging church bells Played hide -and-seek Through the tree tops White light carved into shapes Sat around on blue chairs Knowing my every thought

An example of my feelings re: Adjacent Possible I created a painting in response to the plight of Afghan women and that story is now told. Thinking of other possibilities, I turned it on its side. SYNESTHESIA

357

Margaret Brand | Painting Start, 30” x 40”

I find this exciting, and I thought it sort of reminds me of the sea: maybe I’ll develop that maybe I’ll block out the letters maybe I’ll use them for more pattern maybe I’ll use texture maybe I’ll tear it up (if on paper) and do re-combinatorics

358

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

maybe I’ll do a series using that palette maybe I’ll use just one section to make another painting the list is endless, as that leads to more possibilities the great thing is I don’t know?

Because of Nancy’s teaching, I have found this new world. At first, I was unsure and a bit frightened of the Adjacent Possible but now I find it so exciting, and we have become very good friends, the AP and me–Yeah!! These paintings reflect my responses to the world around me, including, nature, feelings, music, and writing. All of these are starts, with about fifteen minutes of going ‘back in’ at a much later date. I have experimented with different marks, tools, palettes, textures, restraints, and structures to make as much variety as possible and to explore the ‘adjacent possible!’

SYNESTHESIA

359

Margaret Brand | Drum Riff, 24” x 31”

The painting above was created whilst listening to jazz.

360

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Margaret Brand | Deluge, 23” x 34”

A layered two-colour restraint.

SYNESTHESIA

361

Margaret Brand | Building Towards the Light, 26” x 31”

This structured painting evolved from multiple layers of paint.

362

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Margaret Brand | Autumn Shore, 12” x 16”

In Donegal, using restraint in colour. I had no idea a sort of landscape would emerge. Part of my Celtic series.

SYNESTHESIA

363

Margaret Brand | Sailing on Strangford (Celtic Series), 30” x 40”

Back in over graffiti. -Margaret Brand

364

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Reflection: Combining Senses Choose one of the senses of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling and combine it with something–either another sense or something else such as numbers, wind, colors. For example, you could combine: seeing and sound taste and numbers hearing and color Now, begin to freely associate the two categories. For example, freely associate to hearing colors. Record your observations.

SYNESTHESIA

365

51 - Risk Hacking Risk hacking means learning how to “stack the deck” to increase the chances of producing a work of art that surprises and delights you and to decrease the chances of disappointment. In chapter 44, we explored Combinatorics and Re-Combinatorics, and in Chapter 45 we discussed Phase Transitions. These two ideas can be tied together with a story taken from sports. In the 1970s, the Dutch re-framed the strategy for playing soccer, or football as everybody in the world except Americans call it. Previous strategies were mostly centered around creating opportunities for goal-scoring by moving the ball to identified players who would then make the goal attempt. Naturally, counterstrategies evolved to exploit the fragility of this strategy and to prevent the ball from getting to the identified kickers. The new Dutch strategy came to be called total football (totaalvoetbal) and involved a more fluid style of play in which players could change roles and function in more than one way, depending on circumstance. This is a kind of combinatorial exercise that created more useful patterns of game play than had existed before. The strategy also included moving the ball to where it had the most possibilities–the opposite of painting oneself into a corner. The intuition driving this strategy was that the increased number of usable patterns (combinatorics) for retaining control of the ball would outweigh the reduced probability of making a goal at each move, resulting in a higher overall probability of scoring.

366

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I believe this translates into living at the steepest portion of the phase transition graph, where each additional connection provides the greatest overall benefit, a balance of possibility and constraint. Just as in soccer, there are analogous strategies for occupying the “sweet spot” of one’s artistic creativity. Combinatorics is one of them–ripping up the painting and recombining it is a relatively easy way to generate new possibility. You do that and you look at different patterns and that becomes the inspiration to paint a whole painting based on what you discovered. Symmetries can join with combinatorics in creating new options. Together they are a way into The Adjacent Possible. The reason I particularly like combinatorics and symmetries is because of their effect on “hacking risk,” where the concept of hacking is borrowed from computer science where it signifies a quick and dirty short-cut for accomplishing a difficult task. It’s a way of getting around your risk aversion using yourself as the guide. In other words, you are taking something you made, modifying it through recombination and reflection and having the result surprise you, but it’s not going to generate the psychological equivalent of an immune response rejection because it’s you–it’s not other, it is you, but you take yourself somewhere new. So, your psychological immune system doesn’t reject your “art transplant.” It is your own DNA, your own voice, achieved via risk hacking.

RISK HACKING

367

Vignette: Maggy Herbert-Jobson Eyes Wide Open In Chapter 3 of this book, there is my story about Wizards–the good and the bad and the effect these powerful creatures can have on little people of all ages. And it tells of a curse laid by an evil wizard, when Maggy, who was then but six years old and in kindergarten, was told she was messy and had better stick to maths and English. And so, she did– for over the next 50 years. More of that story is written in another chapter, but we can pick it up here, when Maggy still very much a novice, by chance was invited to join a group of highly professional painters, who followed John Blockley–a much celebrated painter. Sadly, John had already died, but left a legacy in his group, many of whom became very successful indeed. They were nearly all professional artists, often having significant solo shows in places like the Royal Cambrian and other such august venues. Maggy was now no longer in kindergarten, but still a very messy painter–but now also a passionate learner. There was no formal teaching–the group met several times a year in stunning locations and worked alone in the landscape–but the devil was in the sharing. There would be a review two- or three-times a week, by the group leader–also a much-revered British Painter. She went through the pile of work, item by item, each individually pinned to the easel with spotlights. There followed an insightful review of the work and discussing of same–often brush stroke by brushstroke, value by value. Although kindly done, it felt terrifying–all her faults exposed and on view, with nowhere to hide.

368

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

But, Maggy had her eyes wide open. And she learnt from others that when work was shared– even if unfinished–that expressive and strong work looked more enticing if it was contained by mat boards. The group were exceptionally generous and kind and often shared stories of John Blockley. One story was about a solo exhibition–when he felt short of work. Needing some 50 paintings–with only 40 or so in the bag and he began to fret… But with the help of a trusted friend and painter chum, they set to work, with mattes of different sizes and L shapes seeking treasure. They reviewed and played with his big stock of abandoned and unfinished paintings–and there they found much magic. And it was those much smaller cropped paintings that were much celebrated in his solo exhibition. Often the strength is in the core of the work–and the strength of marks. And so Maggy became a lover of mattes and of L shapes and began to find that even in her chaotic and often messy work, there was often magic to be found. You just need to believe! About ten years ago, Maggy came across another very successful British Painter, Lewis Noble, who is the acknowledged king of crop and collage. Often working on large paper, he also looks for the core magic and then happily tears up his highly expressive work–and reworks this through tearing and collage into very strong pieces. And so, when Nancy Hillis introduced Combinatorics and Re-Combinatorics in Studio Journey, this chapter fell on very fertile ground and has become a key part of Maggy’s studio practice now. Trust your search, there be magic waiting! -Maggy HJ

RISK HACKING

369

Maggy Herbert-Jobson | Playing the Blues, 16.5” x 24”

Exploration: Risk Hacking with Mundane Materials Explore using mundane materials such as newsprint and house paint like Franz Kline. Or you can use materials you don’t normally use such as clay if you are a painter. Other possibilities are pizza boxes or butcher paper. Just using paper can be a form of risk hacking–some artists say paper frees them up because canvas feels precious and expensive. In the example of working with a new medium such as clay, you may think to yourself: Clay doesn’t count as much because it’s not my normal medium. I’m not a sculptor or a three-dimensional artist. This is fun. This is another form of risk hacking.

370

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

52 - Breaking Through Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We come full circle, back to the beginning, to starting–and you can start anywhere. We’ve gone on a wild ride through science, mathematics, and psychology, but all in the service of creativity. We’ve introduced a variety of concepts to motivate and describe what it is like to be in a “sweet spot” of creativity and to be able to identify it and hopefully to convince you, dear artist, that it is worth seeking out and cultivating. And because we as humans make sense of life through story, we have accompanied the boatload of theory with stories from practicing artists.

BREAKING THROUGH

371

Vignette: Dee Berridge I wasn’t encouraged to be creative as a child. Far from it. My education was all about academic success, but when a friend chose to go to art school instead of the obligatory university, I just somehow knew that was what I wanted too even though I knew nothing about it or what I could do there. The idea of it became a wonderful dream that I deeply wanted to fulfill. My parents were having none of it, but I rebelled and, to their horror, turned down the place I’d been offered at university. I worked as a secretary for four years, attending life drawing classes in the evenings, until I eventually won a grant to go to art school as a full-time student. I was 21 and I was ready. I did a Foundation year followed by a BA and MA at Central School of Art (now Central St Martins) in London. I wanted to paint but was persuaded to study Printed Textiles as the closest thing to painting that I might also be able to earn a living at. Still wanting deep down to be a fine artist I worked as a designer until I was well into my 30’s. I also studied Psychotherapy part time, a subject which had always fascinated me. Following marriage and divorce I finally I reached a point where the yearning to just paint was SO strong, I couldn’t ignore it any longer. Risking everything I gave up my well-paid design work and started painting full time, offering private sessions in Metaphor Therapy to help pay my way. I put everything into my art and finding ways to sell it to support myself and through sheer hard work I got to a point where I was living exclusively from making my art. I loved it! I was nearly 40. I painted full time and had shows and a London gallery and I sold my work very successfully for the next 20 years. My dream had come true.

372

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

However, various things happened in my life that somehow conspired to bring me to a halt, very suddenly, following an open house exhibition. I was 60 when it all fell apart. I just didn’t want to paint any more. I didn’t want to go into my studio. I didn’t even want to go to my beloved life drawing sessions. I knew about creative blocks and kept thinking this would change sooner or later. So, I didn’t give myself a hard time about it. I had a pension now and could manage without the income from selling my work. Time passed and yet I knew, somehow, that the call would come again. I just didn’t know when. So, I refused to give up my studio. I kept it all intact, but I just didn’t want to go in there. Then out of the blue, eight years after I stopped painting, I became very curious about calligraphy, something I’d never been interested in before. I took an online course, and I just couldn’t stop lettering! Then the lettering pieces wanted big watercolour washes across them, and I did a course in expressive watercolour, and one or two other short courses that appealed to me until I came across The Artist’s Journey and I simply had to sign up!

BREAKING THROUGH

373

Dee Berridge | Saturation: Hot Pink from Colour Contrast series, 9.5” x 9”

I didn’t care what it cost or how long it took. I knew I had to do it.

374

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Dee Berridge | Intuition of Reality from Presence series, 6.5” x 6”

I’m 70 now and painting pretty much every day.

BREAKING THROUGH

375

Dee Berridge | Welcoming the Totality of Experience from Presence series, 11.7” x 16.5”

Once again, it’s really all I want to do.

376

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Dee Berridge | St Anne’s Well Gardens, 8” x 7.5”

I have no idea what’s next.

BREAKING THROUGH

377

Dee Berridge | Six Maquettes in a Limited Palette – 3 colours plus B&W, 19.75” x 27.5”

I stay present.

Dee Berridge | ‘Composite’ Life Drawing, 16.5” x 11.7”

378

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I express aspects of my life through my art.

Dee Berridge | Tinnitus, 10” x 10”

I created Tinnitus to reflect an ongoing aural condition I have–it’s my sound of silence–and other people with tinnitus have said it’s a powerful visual expression of what they hear continuously, or that it helps unaffected people understand a loved one’s auditory experience. I’ve learned so much about not knowing in my process of creating art.

BREAKING THROUGH

379

Dee Berridge | Hiding in plain sight, 9.5” x 9”

And I have uncovered some limiting beliefs about what’s possible at this age to which my best response is that none of us knows how long we’ve got, and I have just as much NOW as anyone else!

380

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Dee Berridge | Glorious is the moment (Rumi), 11” x 11”

-Dee Berridge

Exploration: Start Something New Start something new today. It might be 5 painting starts. It might be a sewing project. It might be a sculpture class. Whatever it is–begin–there is magic in it.

BREAKING THROUGH

381

53 - The Adjacent Possible Takes You Somewhere New When we discovered cubism, we did not have the goal of discovering Cubism. We just wanted to express what was in us. Pablo Picasso

After years of creating art and teaching abstract painting I noticed a recurring pattern in the life cycle of artists akin to not only the hero’s journey but also to the evolutionary concept of the adjacent possible–a structured and constrained way of exploring the unknown and making sense of it. Constraint helps us make sense of experimentation. With one foot in the known, we can more confidently explore the unknown with the other. It reminds me of one of the Wallace and Gromit plasticine animated movies, containing a chase scene in which a character astride a toy locomotive is laying track just ahead of the speeding train, enabling the next bit of travel. This embodies the idea of the adjacent possible–the continuous creation of the next step on the path, the dynamic creation of options in an evolving context that you are contributing to. Hang on! It will be quite a ride.

382

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

A Story of Writing and The Adjacent Possible I heard a story recently about a prolific writer who said he: writes and writes and writes and writes and writes and writes and writes Most of his work does not see the light of day–he doesn’t publish it. But in putting pen to paper or tapping on the keypad, he formulates ideas. Something emerges in the process of writing. Something happens, perhaps something unexpected shows up. He emerges from this experience, the adjacent possible, and something new is born in his writing. It’s like the story about there being three secrets of a perfect marriage. The problem is that nobody knows which three they are without trying it, and it’s different for everyone. You are creating an interactive future that would not exist without your action. You are creating the adjacent possible and continuously exploring.

T H E A DJ AC E N T P O S S I B L E TA K E S YO U S O M E W H E R E N E W

383

You can choose whether to publish your work or not. The important thing is that it takes you somewhere new.

Vignette: Kathryn Deiss Adjacent Possible Story In looking for other inspiration after sticking with one series for a very long time, I happened to find a photograph of a clay figure that was found in an archaeological dig in the middle of Mexico City which is my hometown.

Aztec sculpture | Museum of Tenochtitlan, Mexico City, Mexico

384

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

This clay figure affected me physically when I saw it in person–and continues to affect me: the hair on my arms stands on end and my heart rate goes up when I look at it. This is how I know I have to pay attention to–or usually cannot avoid paying attention to–something. This figure is the Mexica (commonly known as Aztec) god of the underworld. In real life it is a grimacing six-foot tall fearsome figure with claws on its fingers, very pronounced skeletal ribs, and an arresting set of organs hanging from underneath the ribs: the liver and the lungs (or possibly the liver and kidneys). There are two of these figures standing next to each other. Just riveting! The holes on their heads were stuffed with real hair (at least that is what archaeologists believe). I cannot avoid this figure and over the years I would return to look at photographs of it–but that was all; it was just in my mind kind of making itself known. Finally, one day, there on my large piece of paper were marks that came directly from the shape of the organs and the lines of the ribs.

Kathryn Deiss | Mictlan Series #1, 22” x 34”

T H E A DJ AC E N T P O S S I B L E TA K E S YO U S O M E W H E R E N E W

385

At first, I literally was thinking about the meaning and reality of those elements and then without my purposely doing it, the lines and shapes became abstract. This whole sequence of remembering, seeing, physical sensation, and finding things coming from my graphite, watercolor, and oil pastels was a huge surprise to me.

Kathryn Deiss | Mictlan Series #3, 18” x 24”

When I learned about the Adjacent Possible from Nancy and Bruce, it made sense that one thing could spur a whole sequence of thoughts, ideas, and sensations that would end up in my artwork.

386

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Reflection: Going Somewhere New This is a memory experiment where you think back to experiences and events in your life where something astonishing and transformative happened that you didn’t know was possible beforehand. It’s the moment when you follow a hunch and surprise yourself. The hunch may have arrived because of an entirely different pursuit. It’s when a bluebird flies into your life, inviting a sequence of events. It’s the German phrase “lass ‘was einfallen” (let something fall in) that captures the idea of allowing new things to enter into your life. Write down surprises that have entered your life. For example, you set out to do A, stumbled onto B and it changed your life into C. 

T H E A DJ AC E N T P O S S I B L E TA K E S YO U S O M E W H E R E N E W

387

54 - Is A Painting Ever Finished? Don’t crystallize too early–stay fluid and open to possibilities. The question of finishing a painting comes up a lot. This begs the rhetorical question: Is a painting ever finished? Do you finish a painting or simply stop wherever you decide? I believe the latter. The idea of “finishing” a painting feels reductionist–the possibilities are endless. Therefore, I mostly place quotes around the term. In Chapter 48 we discussed the ideas of durchkomponiert and monocoque, two concepts that describe a work that is whole and cohesive from the get-go, a state that is hard to create but easy to identify. If a work is whole from the beginning, it becomes somewhat of an arbitrary question of when to stop. Perhaps when you have nothing more to say or have reached the point of diminishing returns, of stating all which you came to say without restating anything. In 1964, the United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart was asked how he would identify obscenity. He famously replied, “I’ll know it when I see it.” The power and cohesiveness of great artworks tends to be similarly hard to pin down, but we have tried in this book to identify some of what goes into them and to incorporate these

388

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

understandings into one’s own creativity rather than just trusting “dumb luck.” The Adjacent Possible is an attempt to define “smart luck.” One of the greatest minds the world has known, Leonardo Da Vanci said: “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” I believe this question of “finishing” a painting is an artifact of reductionism. Creating a painting is akin to the mathematical concept of an asymptotic function where you go from zero to one but never quite reach the number one. You might imagine that the painting is “finished” by the observer and each observer will finish it differently.  

Poised Instability In our discussion of phase transitions associated with creativity, we introduced the idea of trying to live at the steep part of the phase transition, where each new realization generates profound connection and insight. This is a tall order. The reason it’s hard to do is that it is unstable. If we’ve gotten a bit of understanding, confidence, coherence, and comfort in our creative process it’s natural to want more. We start being incredibly productive, doing what we know how to do, and getting better and better at it. But, taken too far, this can be counterproductive. We need to “stay uncomfortable,” introducing new and alien concepts into our creative lives. This is the entire purpose of the Adjacent Possible, a structured way of thinking about this uncomfortable process, a way of staying alive and vibrant in one’s art.

IS A PAINTING EVER FINISHED?

389

At the pivot point between creation and collapse is a state of poised instability. This is the place of the most possibility, the place of emergent phenomenon–and this is where we want to be as artists. A metaphor for the interaction of the Adjacent Possible and Poised Instability is a rock in the riverbed of a stream and the dancing wave that is above it. The wave is continuously changing form, collapsing on itself, never utilizing the same water twice. But it persists because of the structural configuration of the rock firmly embedded in the streambed. Having a disciplined way to introduce novelty into one’s artistic process is a way of staying at the point of poised instability and maximum possibility. In a practical sense, staying poised at exactly the sweet spot is a tightrope act. There’s going to be some moving around. Furthermore, no matter how skillfully you surf the balance between novelty and mastery, your ride will eventually end. Many well-known artists have had “epochs” in their artistic lives that run their course and are replaced by something different, sometimes a lot different. This sets the stage for the next scientific idea, that of punctuated equilibrium.

Punctuated Equilibrium In evolutionary biology, there is a phenomenon known as punctuated equilibrium, sometimes affectionately known as Punk Eek. In one’s creative evolution, a similar phenomenon can be observed. The Cambrian explosion, about 550M years ago, is a prime example of this, as is the explosion of new forms of life after the extinction of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.

390

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

This is the idea, supported by evidence in the fossil record, that evolution does not proceed smoothly like a stately royal procession in a British cathedral. Instead of imperious measured steps down a vast stone nave, it’s more like hours of quiet studying in a calm library interrupted periodically by raucous rampaging mobs of soccer hooligans, knocking over chairs, and hurling books. In evolutionary processes, it is the accumulation of novelty, tensions, and inconsistencies in a system, eventually reaching a tipping point that generates a large system-wide restructuring. An example: In technological history, the Industrial Revolution started with a British machine to pump water out of coal mines, but James Watt’s steam engine unleashed waves of transformation that have not stopped a quarter-millennium later. At first the consequences may have looked only like cheaper coal, but knock-on effects led to factories, myriad technological innovations, and new forms of government, warfare, and industry. The consequences have been as profound to the nature of human civilization as the development of agriculture ten thousand years ago, and we’re still in the middle of the transformation. In biological history, big changes in the composition of species have been driven both by external events such as asteroid strikes, but also by internally generated transitions without any obvious connection to such a catastrophic event. This dynamic has also been seen in the world of ideas as written about by Thomas Kuhn in his Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Long periods of seeming intellectual stability are punctuated by rapid turbulent change. Exceptions to the dominant world-view accumulate until the structure collapses under the strain, and a new understanding emerges from the ashes.

IS A PAINTING EVER FINISHED?

391

This can happen in one’s painting life–you’re painting along and suddenly, something changes and you’re never the same again, particularly if you are cultivating living at the sweet spot of poised instability. It’s worth paying attention at such times.

Vignette: Elizabeth Vander Schaaf Waiting For the Feeling–Keep Going I had in mind exploring one color paintings on a handful of small, used canvases that my sister had given me. I gessoed two and went in with many layers, later adding delicate markings on top. They felt interesting, but not fully alive yet.

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Orange Crush (Before), 12” x 9”

392

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Poppy (Before), 12” x 9”

After setting them aside for weeks, not sure what to do next, one day I felt ready to quiet my strategic thinking and jump in. I remember making quick, spontaneous gestures with sheer paint, gliding over the paintings with freedom and stopping quickly. IS A PAINTING EVER FINISHED?

393

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Orange Crush (After), 12” x 9”

394

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf | Poppy (After), 12” x 9”

IS A PAINTING EVER FINISHED?

395

I think all the work and frustration that came before those final moves was necessary, helping to evolve these small works. After weeks of second guessing and painting with an outcome in mind, in an instant they came to life. I had that excited feeling in my chest that said Yes! -Elizabeth Vander Schaaf

Exploration: Exploit Poised Instability The place where you can entertain the most possibility is with starts. It’s easy to make starts. You can make a lot of them. As you start proceeding beyond that, you begin making choices and it reduces the possibilities. Eventually, you end up with one thing, one work of art. The way to exploit and extend this poised instability is to make lots of starts. Explore your associations to poised instability in your art. What do you notice? What would happen if your art teetered into collapse? Would an ugly painting emerge? Something else? Create 5-20 (or more) painting starts with the express notion of exploring poised instability. Allow some of these starts to remain raw. Develop a few of them further. Finally, take some of the paintings even further. What do you notice? Do you prefer raw? More layers? Is it possible that a raw painting can be “finished” at the beginning?

396

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

55 - Coda: Many Forking Paths & The Art of the Possible This chapter is a kind of “extra credit” chapter, philosophical musings on the nature of being and existence and their relationship to the process of artistic creativity. It will not be graded, and in fact we will never know if you read it or not. But if you read it you might be able to pet Schrödinger’s cat.

Scientific Concepts Writ in Electricity Lightning, with its forking patterns shocking the landscape, is an illustration of scientific concepts writ in electricity, searingly bright and ephemeral. In 1941, the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges wrote a story called The Garden of Forking Paths. In this novel, the main character Dr Yu Tsun, a Chinese professor of English and descendant of novelist Ts’ui Pen, seeks to unravel his ancestor’s creations. In the story, Ts’ui left a cushy government post to devote his life to creating a labyrinth and a novel. The labyrinth and Ts’ui’s novel turn out to be one and the same.

An Unresolvable Puzzle Ts’ui’s ambition was to create a labyrinth in which “all men become lost,” an unresolvable puzzle.

C O DA : M A N Y F O R K I N G PAT H S & T H E A R T O F T H E P O S S I B L E

397

We assert that artistic creativity is deeply intertwined with the idea of resolvability. In most fictions, a character chooses one alternative at each decision point and eliminates others.

Infinite Possibilities In Ts’ui Pên’s novel many possible outcomes of an event occur simultaneously, all of which themselves lead to further proliferations of possibilities. All the different possibilities continue to exist simultaneously with the chosen path, all of them are potentially viable and consistent. This certainly sounds like the adjacent possible. In the 18th century, Gottfried Leibniz, a German polymath who developed the main ideas of differential and integral calculus independent of Isaac Newton, thought that the “paths not chosen” continued as ideas in the mind of God, having an existence separate from the world that contains us and our experiences. A related concept to Leibniz’ has shown up more recently in the “Many Worlds” interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, blowing the dust off old ideas.

Feynman’s Path Integral Formulation More recently, there is a formulation of quantum mechanics due to Richard Feynman called the “path integral formulation.” The idea is there are an infinite number of possible paths for a system to get from one configuration to another. Each path is associated with a probability and all the paths contribute to what is observed because

398

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

they carry information that evolves the whole system forward. When an experiment is performed to observe the system; however, only one path is seen. The rest are behind the curtain of reality, unseen but not absent. Some claim that Feynman, who spent a year in Brazil as a visiting scholar and met Borges at one point, was directly influenced by the novel. But, lacking written evidence, it remains a perfect theory in that it can’t be proven one way or the other.

Schrödinger’s Cat & The Many Worlds Hypothesis A more recent interpretation of the quantum mechanical garden of forking paths is the “many worlds hypothesis.” This is where each act of observation branches off a Universe from all other possible Universes. The other possible Universes continue to exist in the sense that they are all plausible and obey the laws of physics. An illustration that is often brought forth to argue for this interpretation is “Schrödinger’s Cat,” a famous physics thought experiment. (Gedankenexperiment) This describes a cat in a box where a single quantum mechanical event of nuclear decay can release a poison that could kill the cat. Before observation, the system has a mysterious combination, a “superimposition,” of cat-alive and cat-dead. Afterwards, a path has been chosen. This assumes that a cat has only one life or at the very least starts the scenario on life number 9. Imagine what it would be like taking such a cat to the veterinarian. Borges’ story has entered the subconscious as a widespread meme, or perhaps his novel was the first fruiting of an earlier seed, or one of an infinite number of explanations.

C O DA : M A N Y F O R K I N G PAT H S & T H E A R T O F T H E P O S S I B L E

399

It can even be seen as the coalescence point of an entire literary genre known as Uchronia or alternate histories. Examples go back to alternate histories of Alexander the Great’s conquests, Napoleon and Russia, and the American Civil War. At least three recent films have explored the idea of alternate pathways existing simultaneously: Run, Lola, Run Winter Sleepers Sliding Doors In all three, the precarious knife-edge of reality is made visible and dramatic. Some video games have embraced the concept wholeheartedly, with player interactions driving the game’s narrative through a vast ensemble of possible stories. This is a practical application of combinatorics–10 instances of 10 choices results in 10 billion possible stories, enough even for ardent gamers.

Art & Alternate Pathways The earliest art form that makes use of alternate pathways within a composition as a compositional technique may be the Musikalisches Würfelspiel (musical dice game) employed by Mozart and others in the 18th and 19th centuries. This is where the path through a composition is determined by successive dice throws. John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and others further developed the idea more recently, using electronic instruments and computers to create a richer palette of possibilities.

400

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

But even all those possible musical pathways are written down in advance, so they don’t properly embody what we call the adjacent possible. In real life, the alternate pathways are created on the fly rather than sitting there waiting to be explored.

Jazz & The Adjacent Possible Musically, this is more like jazz–what has happened unfolds possibilities for what might happen next, and the paths not taken inform the path taken. If we had infinite knowledge and predictive power, could we specify all the adjacent possibles in advance, making life into a kind of gigantic video game? This is an open question, but there are reasons to suspect we cannot. This requires introducing a couple of new characters, Kurt Gödel and Georg Cantor. These gents explored the ideas of different classes of infinities and the nature of unprovable assertions in the 20th century. But we will have to defer a discussion about their ideas until another book.

Creativity & The Garden of Forking Paths Since every composition creates a new world unto itself, the process carves out a new world from all the worlds that might have been and perhaps still exist in the mind of the creator. This is akin to how a sculptor like Michelangelo releases a figure from the stone. Bach knows how the fugue might have gone; Picasso knows how the brush stroke might have differed. The unconscious world is much larger than the conscious one, a related and adjacent infinity, a greater world of possibility only the artist can perceive.

C O DA : M A N Y F O R K I N G PAT H S & T H E A R T O F T H E P O S S I B L E

401

We have come full circle to find the unconscious, the creative, and the possible are all deeply connected. In that place lives Art.

Vignette: Bob Reid I was born during World War II, a war baby. If that wasn’t rare enough, I was the first grandson, first male on both sides. Two grandmothers lived nearby; they couldn’t do enough to help me become the real Bob Reid. They had a mission. As I grew up, this little balloon that was Bob was growing. The surface between knowing and notknowing was also growing. I became more and more aware of how much I didn’t know. So much to explore! At the age of five, one grandmother gave me a Brownie camera, the other gave me a set of oil paints. All through school I painted and took photographs. Some things I learned early on: I realized that pleasing people was a dead-end street when they started commenting on my work. Person A wanted the sunset this color. Person B wanted the sunset a different color. I disagreed with them all. So, I learned to ignore them. My grandmothers arranged my first show, a tableau of art and photographs spread across the top of a grand piano. My mother adored it. My father, a man of few words, said “Bobby, you’ll never make a living as an artist.” My first art critique.

402

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

So, I veered off in the direction of photography. You can’t do photography “wrong,” can you? It is reality after all, whatever that is. It was enough to get my father off my back in any case. Later in life I would circle back to painting. As an adult I spent many years flying all over the globe, working as a consulting statistician, educating people in business situations about the bell curve while avoiding telling them that it was anything but normal. I accumulated enough frequent flyer miles to go to Mars. I also taught art and photography at the college level. I was confronted with the conundrum of teaching creativity. I decided that you can’t teach people anything, but they can learn. If people don’t have curiosity, you can’t instill it. And I facilitated creativity by not telling them what to do, just as Nancy doesn’t tell her students what to do, but rather, exhorts us to trust ourselves so we can go to that edge of allowing something new to emerge in our art and life. Instead, I attempted to arrange for them to stumble over interesting things, to explore and experiment, to find a nascent way to be themselves. I took my class to the woods and told them to look around at the patterns and colors and shapes that they saw and to incorporate that into their work, but I didn’t tell them how to do it. I said, “Pick up something in the woods. Create a picture using the colors from the woods.” This provided a fortuitous and spontaneous path into the adjacent possible. It is always there, but it is not packaged and “off the shelf” because it is different for different people and constantly changing. By the time you get to a ripe age, all you’ve heard and experienced is, “Do this. Don’t do that. Go here. Wrist slap.” As Picasso said, “It takes a lifetime to learn to paint like a child.”

C O DA : M A N Y F O R K I N G PAT H S & T H E A R T O F T H E P O S S I B L E

403

We must give ourselves the freedom to fail, get away from definitions of right and wrong in art. There are too many rules and too many people telling you to listen to them. We’re all dying of starvation at a banquet because of rules. We can grant ourselves the liberty to learn. My wife’s parents went to the grave without ever eating Chinese food, which was both adjacent and possible. What marvelous things are right under your nose? -Bob Reid

Bob Reid | Meadow, 48” x 48”

404

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Bob Reid | Run, 48” x 48”

Bob Reid | Strata 2, 48” x 48”

C O DA : M A N Y F O R K I N G PAT H S & T H E A R T O F T H E P O S S I B L E

405

Bob Reid | Red Signs, 48” x 48”

Bob Reid | Cauldron, 48” x 48”

406

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Bob Reid | Gray and Pink Days, 48” x 48”

C O DA : M A N Y F O R K I N G PAT H S & T H E A R T O F T H E P O S S I B L E

407

Bob Reid | Mixed, 48” x 48”

Reflection: Freedom What will you explore when you give yourself “the freedom to fail, the liberty to learn” that Bob talks about? Write about it in your art journal–and then, begin experimenting!

408

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

56 - Art Abides Art is standing with one hand extended into the universe and one hand extended into the world, and letting ourselves be a conduit for passing energy. Albert Einstein

The Function of Function What if you dispense with function? Art doesn’t have to “do” anything in the physical and functional sense except move the person who experiences it, although sometimes it might have to match the sofa. Art is usually a physical thing, but it is not subject to the constraints of utilitarianism. Concepts like “fixed” or “broken” do not readily apply, let alone “new and improved.” Art decays with time–paints fade, marble etches and stains, steel rusts–but the idea of art persists. Some art, like music, is continuously made anew by new people and instruments, a property more mundane objects can only dream of. This is a different kind of decay, not inevitable obsolescence like industrial output. Creativity is deeply connected with our inner lives, only peripherally connected with transient external physical reality. If art no longer moves its audience, it fades into the background, but it can be reborn when a new audience discovers it. In that sense it never dies, only sleeps.

ART ABIDES

409

Since artistic creativity is decoupled from usefulness, it is also decoupled from the exigencies of time.

Art Abides A utilitarian device needs to fulfill a certain need at a certain time (coffee now!), but art abides. Art has one foot in the unchanging and the immortal, propelled by aspiration and imagination. The other foot is in the physical realization of it–the blob of impasto paint, the rosin on the cello bow, the cold surface of granite, the sharp edge of the chisel. It is this straddling of the everlasting and the immediately manifest that evokes the adjacent possible, a portal into a world beyond the boundaries of one’s life and understanding. Perhaps it is part of the motivation behind buying art–it is like purchasing medieval indulgences in church to ensure one’s place in Heaven. Art confers the option of immortality by association.

Vignette: Nancy Hillis It’s ironic that this book which largely celebrates painting has a discourse on sculpture near the end. But this book is also about the essential twists and turns in the creative process. Besides, I started as a sculptor so perhaps it’s no surprise I return to it for this vignette.

410

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

We were visiting Seattle and had an afternoon free at the Seattle Art Museum. As we descended a long set of stairs a gleaming, enigmatic figure emerged that filled a large exhibition space, magisterial and inscrutable. Six years later, at Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, we emerged from another stairwell and beheld an imposing figure–at once recognizable and yet different from the one in Seattle. Bruce, a few steps ahead of me, gasped, and I ran to him to be sure he was okay. It was another version of the figure that enraptured us in Seattle, looming like an effigy–a 9-foot-tall installation Some/One by Do Ho-Suh. I first saw a photograph of Suh’s Some/One in Palette magazine before the Seattle Art Museum visit and even the static image was riveting–but seeing it in person moved me to tears. Some/One is an artwork comprising one hundred thousand stainless steel military dog tags, each one approximately 1 x 2 inches. The piece resembles an armored ceremonial robe suspended from a cross-like armature, arms extended as if at a crucifixion or benediction, with the hem of the metal raiment flowing generously around the piece like a stainless-steel wave flooding across the floor. The backstory of Some/One is like a bluebird in the artist’s life. It arose unbidden and unplanned. Suh studied painting at Rhode Island School of Design. There’s a story that he had to take an elective course in another medium for graduation requirements. It turned out to be a sculpture class on the topic of identity. In the ISEE paradigm for artistic creativity that scaffolds this book, the “I” stands for “Inner.” What is more Inner than identity? The spark in Suh’s case came from an external source, a professor teaching a class on the subject. One finds inspiration where one can, and luck can be courted by being open to unexpected sources.

ART ABIDES

411

It was an experience that would change his life–he abandoned painting and became a sculptor. More specifically, the assignment was to explore forms of clothing to address concepts of identity. I presume that, at first, Suh had no idea what to do with this assignment. He was a painter, after all! But he knew he had to “Start,” the second element of the ISEE paradigm.

A Dream Suh created a sculpture called Metal Jacket. Unbeknownst to Suh, it was the precursor to his masterpiece Some/One. There is a story that after creating Metal Jacket, Suh had a dream of a nighttime football stadium. As he approached the stadium, he heard clicking sounds and saw some sort of reflecting surface. He realized he was stepping on metal pieces. They turned out to be military dog tags. From afar, a figure in the center of the stadium was trying to exit but couldn’t due to the enormity of the metallic robe he was wearing.

Holding Space for The Image After the dream, Suh drew a field of military dog tags and a figure. The concept was related to his previous sculpture Metal Jacket in form, but he was experimenting on the execution of the theme.

412

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

The first “E” in ISEE is “Experiment.” A dream led the way to a modified concept of a work of art. In interviews, Suh said this image came to him unbidden. He knew he couldn’t exactly replicate what he saw in the dream for practical reasons, but as he held the dream image in his mind, he hoped he could convey the impact he felt. To realize his dream, he had to evolve the concept, to make it buildable, to work through how to express the content of his dream within the constraints of physical materials and museums that do not have spaces the size of stadiums. The Last “E” in ISEE is “Evolve.” Suh’s series evolved from Metal Jacket which led to a dream and eventually to Some/One. The world was able to experience Suh’s vision because it evolved into a new form and a realizable plan.

Inspiration Suh says he wants the viewer to experience the thousands of dog tags that represent individual identity and yet all together make up one whole larger than life figure. The title reflects the paradox of the anonymity of the someone and yet the intimacy of the encounter with the one. The one hundred thousand dog tags create one whole figure. Not only did Suh evolve the actual piece of art, but he also evolved its interpretation, the message he wished to convey. The piece is oriented to be approached from behind. At first glance, it looked like a metal cloak, but as I came closer, I realized the armature scaffolds a vestment of chain mail made of dog tags imprinted with anonymous symbols. As you walk around the sculpture, you see a mirrored interior and realize the piece is hollow.

ART ABIDES

413

But there is another surprise–Stepping closer, you see yourself reflected in the interior mirrors. The experience of viewing this piece in person was moving and haunting. The hundreds of anonymous dog tags create a cohesive defensive armor evoking how the many warriors came together as one, unified by purpose. Yet it is empty inside, perhaps symbolizing the sacrifice others made for the viewer of the artwork, reflected to them. One’s life is built on the contributions of vast numbers of people one will never know. Seeing the artwork, a second time in a new location, was a bluebird–a rare and wondrous surprise. I believe great art gets at what it is to be human–the mystery and predicaments of life. This is art–art that moves us and makes us think–it causes us to reflect upon our humanity, our existential condition. -Nancy Hillis

Reflection Reflect on what art means to you.

414

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

57 - This Moment Years ago, I worked in collage creating abstracted figures and horses.

Nancy Hillis | Dreaming with Scarlett, 22” x 30”

THIS MOMENT

415

Dreaming with Scarlett is the first in a series of horse and figurative collages I created. Scarlett came into my life when I was 37, after I dreamt of my childhood horse Misty. She was pure magic, seeming to be almost human, and transforming the lives of the three women who loved her over her lifetime.

Nancy Hillis | No Other, 22” x 30”

416

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

This collage is in homage to Topsy, Scarlett’s stable mate. Topsy was a force of nature, one of the fastest cutting horses ever seen, and the lead mare in any situation.

Nancy Hillis | This Moment, 18” x 24”

One day, in a kind of meditative reverie, adhering various sizes and shapes of paper to canvas, an image emerged unbidden. At first it suggested two women engrossed in rapt conversation. But after living with the artwork for months, it spoke to me of something deeper. It was as if the collage had secrets to reveal if only I would notice and see it with new eyes. One day, it dawned on me that this piece was about being present and aware of the miracle of this moment–the miracle of existence available to us every second. THIS MOMENT

417

I loved it so much, I created a second version in colorful oils.

Nancy Hillis | This Moment, 16” x 20”

At the end of my mother’s life, This Moment lived in her bedroom. One day, she asked me to take it off the wall. I pulled it down and brought it to her. She ran her fingers along the entire surface of the board, feeling the undulations of the impasto brushstrokes. After several minutes of looking at it intently, she stated with certainty that it was me and my sister.

418

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

She loved it. It was meaningful and gave her solace beyond words at the end. This is the magic of art–it reveals profound truths and lights the way in the darkness. This moment–in this moment anything is possible. This is the art of the possible.

THIS MOMENT

419

Benediction The price of doing what you believe in is, and always was, the same–namely, your life. Heinz Pagels, The Dreams of Reason

Heinz Pagels, the late Stanford theoretical physicist, one of the early minds behind the Santa Fe Institute wrote in his book: The Dreams of Reason a book about complexity science: It costs not less than everything to dedicate your life to what you love. Heinz Pagels This truism extends far beyond the bounds of science and looks to be a property of reflective human life itself. Creating your deepest art and life is a Herculean task worthy of the effort. It begins with saying yes to your dreams. Through the hours of your life may you give yourself time and space to remember the mystery that is you. May you remember and keep re-finding your inner creative journey.

420

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

At the source of the longest river The voice of the hidden waterfall And the children in the apple-tree Not known, because not looked for But heard, half-heard, in the stillness Between two waves of the sea. Quick now, here, now, always– A condition of complete simplicity (Costing not less than everything) T.S. Eliot, excerpted, The Four Quartets

As we return to T.S. Eliot’s poem, I am reminded of the ineffable experience of life unfolding and how we come full circle back to ourselves and re-encounter forks in the road that we were unaware of the first time around. It takes everything to listen to your heart’s yearnings, answer the call, and plunge into the mystery of creating with aliveness, meaning, and your own true voice.

BENEDICTION

421

Featured Artists Marian Bach Currently living in the Lake Tahoe region of Eastern Nevada, Marian has known Dr. Hillis since the early 2000s. A friendship that resulted in participation in the Artist’s Journey course work from early stages to the present. A Master’s Degree in Arts Education preceded a career in non-profit investment management, ultimately leading to work in a successful startup in Palo Alto, CA. The immediacy of acrylic paint, paper, and mark making tools, fuel her abstract paintings. “Inspiration is everywhere.” Abstract works on paper, large and small, are her mainstay form, showing mostly to friends and neighbors. Marian is not always available online but reachable via email and text.

Dee Berridge Dee is a prizewinning abstract artist with paintings held in private collections around the world. She studied art and design at Central St Martins in London where she gained an MA with Distinction. A professional artist all her life she also spent 30 years in private practice as a psychotherapist specializing in Symbolic Modelling and Metaphor Therapy. These similar shared interests drew her naturally to Nancy’s approach and she enjoys exploring ways to include this in her own art practice.

422

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Now in her 70s Dee continues to paint at her home by the sea on the south coast of England where she lives with her guitarist husband and two ridiculously small and delightful chihuahuas.

Margaret Brand It all started when I was two years old, seeing the sunlight streaming through a stained-glass window. The vibrancy of the coloured lights made a magical impression on me and it has influenced my work to this day. I was born and bred in Northern Ireland and, from as early as I can remember, was drawn to all things creative, whether it be contemporary painting, ceramics, sculpture, collage, making props for the opera, Tiffany glass work, writing, or poetry. The gentle beauty of Ireland has always been a constant source of inspiration and it led me to join the Irish School of Landscape Painting, where I received a fellowship from my tutor, the renowned artist, Kenneth Webb. Over the years, I have exhibited regularly at many venues in Belfast, Dublin, and the Mall Gallery in London. My paintings have sold to both private and public collections around the world, including Arizona, Kentucky, Brussels, Australia, and Spain and also to the Ulster Television Permanent Collection. Additionally, I was commissioned by Down County Council to paint a large mural depicting the late eighteenth century linen heritage of that era, which was displayed in Ballynahinch town center. Currently, my work is evolving in a purely abstract direction as I experiment with space, colour, and an endless variety of mark making to express my responses to the world around me. I was very excited to discover the wonderful Nancy Hillis courses, which have expertly guided me further down this path. I have now completed three inspirational courses, including the F E AT U R E D A R T I S T S

423

Master Class, and these have opened up a whole new world of freedom and expression in the ‘adjacent possible.’

Rhonda Campbell I am an Australian Artist and Printmaker living in Orange NSW, where I have two studios. I am passionate about color, texture, and mark making, taking my inspiration from the land and nature. Each new painting or print reveals its own tendencies, surprises, and spontaneity, as it comes to life. Rather than recreating a subject, I aim to express its essence and capture the richness through different elements and techniques–to explore and experiment. With this in mind I go about building up multiple layers and then proceed to scratch, scrape, and draw back into those layers, letting the layers beneath show through, providing a great history of what came before.

Kathryn Deiss Kathryn Deiss was born and raised in Mexico City, Mexico. Her work in stone, multimedia, watercolor, and metalpoint is informed by the evocative nature of the multicultural environment she grew up in– particularly the imagery and fragmentary leavings of the Mexica (Aztec) culture–as well as by the charm and joy of small toys. Her work has been exhibited in Albany and Schenectady, NY and in Naples, FL as well as at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, MI.

424

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Dana Dion Dana Dion is a Sydney, Australia based artist. Dana was born in Israel and grew up there and in East Africa and Canada. She studied art at the Emily Carr University in Vancouver, owned and operated 3 fitness studios for 12 years, sold them and then moved to London in 1995 where she studied art at the Hampstead School of Art. She settled in Australia with her husband and three children in 1999 and became a full-time artist in 2005. She has participated in art mentoring programs by Garry Foye, Annette Pringle in Sydney, and Steven Aimone in the US. Dana works on a large scale with painterly verve, an intricate line, and a nuanced palette. Honored with three major art prizes, her work has been included in many juried competitions.

James Edward James Edward, born in 1954, literate in English, resident of New York and New Jersey until 10 years old. He was the state tennis champion in Rio de Janeiro. When he was 15 years old, he was offered a scholarship at the University of Michigan but refused. Graduated in Electronics Engineering, he did a postgraduate degree in computer architecture at UCLA. For over 30 years, he worked as a special effects producer, overturning cars, blowing up buildings, and inventing solutions on the most prominent Brazilian television network. But it was never just that. Interested in art history, from an early age, he was a dilettante, reading, seeing, and listening to everything he found about it. With a creative eye to unite engineering and art, he began to make steel and glass sculptures.

F E AT U R E D A R T I S T S

425

From sculptures, he went to furniture designer. It wasn’t just any furniture. The furniture was genuinely Brazilian and ecologically certified. Mixing the structures’ precision with the lines’ delicacy, he created a line of tables, benches, and chairs. These creations paid homage to famous Brazilian furniture designs such as Zanine, Sérgio Rodrigues, and Joaquim Tenreiro. With the furniture, James was sure that art was his way, not to mention his destiny. The impulse needed to realize its artistic verve in forms used to welcome us at home, at work, and at leisure. Since these, he would be capable of removing any creative barriers and taught to apply scientific or empirical methods to the use of natural resources for the benefit of the human being. His creativity flowed. His straight features transformed. His emotions went further, and the engineer turned producer turned sculptor/designer finally allowed himself to be reborn in his state of a painter at once full and brute. For James, painting is going beyond the obvious, the identifiable, and the expected. For James to paint is ultimately James, a simple man committed to life who expresses himself through his art without strings or fear. A complex and intense artist who is not afraid to take risks.

Sandra Felemovicius Born in Mexico City, I carry the rich colors and traditions of my heritage with me everywhere I go. Minneapolis has been my home for 27+ years, and I love bringing that energy to homes and business spaces here in Twin Cities through my art. I strive to evoke a reaction through my painting, and it is this conversation between artist and viewer that has always fascinated me.

426

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

This favorite quote from Richard Pousette-Dart stating “I strive to express the spiritual nature of the universe. Painting is for me a dynamic balance and wholeness of life; it is mysterious and transcendent, yet solid and real,” captures the heart of who I am as an artist. Sandra pulls from her Mexican culture and the outer tangible world to create her abstractions. She can be inspired by a fragment of a rock or a wall that catches her eye, and incorporates simple forms, shapes, and lines into her complex work. Her process of creating a painting is rooted in who she is, a Jewish Mexican Artist, integrating her past with the present cultures. Always beginning with a small sketch that she later transfers to a full-scale painting, she builds her surfaces using mixed media with multiple layers, resulting in a combination of light, color, forms, and shapes that creates a comforting balance.

Betty Franks Betty Franks was born in Toronto, Canada, and raised in San Jose, California. She is a self-taught abstract artist who started painting when she turned 50. Although it seems late in life to take up painting, the timing was just right for her. After a long career in customer service management, she was ready to unleash her creative side.

Libby Manchester Gilpatric Born and raised in an industrial valley in Ohio, I always marveled at the beautiful orange and soot-laden skies. The sulphury aroma of the coke ovens converting coal to coke, a purified carbon component of the steel making process my grandfather called the smell of money. My vision was colored forever and those images sometimes creep into my work. I paint local landscape scenes of the sea, harbors, islands, figures, animals, trees, and plants. The F E AT U R E D A R T I S T S

427

appeal of trees, their strength and sheltering shapes, has always dominated my love of nature. Painting forests or the ocean I look for rhythms and forms as if they were dancers’ choreography. I’ve painted all my life but only studied formally after sixty years of getting around to it. I arrived in Rhode Island in 1998 for a retirement-life of sailing the New England coast and also fell in love with painting the landscape and rural life as well as that of the mariner. Working with oil paint is physical–putting paint with a brush or knife onto canvas or board. I work in Contemporary Realism, but recently I am renewing my love of abstract compositions and mark making using a variety of constraints and variables–a completely different process that is not visually pre-planned and therefore freeing. My work can be found at the Norton Gallery in South Dartmouth. A half-dozen works appeared in the Richard Gere film Hachi. Two paintings hung in Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s office for several years and five spent a year in the mayor’s office in Providence City Hall. I studied Fine Art and English Literature at Wilson College, Education at the University of Pennsylvania, and painting, drawing, and sculpture at Lyme Academy of Fine Arts.

Andrea Graham I see pictures everywhere. In cracked sidewalks, gnarly tree trunks, throw pillows smashed together on the sofa. I see the world as lines, shapes, patterns, and textures. In my dreams I see abstract paintings down to the last detail. Do these an artist make? I think not. The challenge for an artist is not only to see but to express what is seen.

428

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I have spent years looking at and appreciating art, but how does a woman in her mid-70s with minimal training and experience begin to create tangible expressions of the art she envisions? I began by learning about color and techniques and papers and canvases. I put daily brush miles into my art journal. I experimented with a multitude of instruments. Am I an artist yet? I think not. But I do think I was going about this artist thing the wrong way by overthinking and by trying too hard to do it right. This insight occurred to me when I set out to paint a very cool painting I had seen in a dream. I set up the easel. I readied the palette. I took a deep breath in, exhaled, and made the first mark of what I knew would be a masterpiece. “Oh crap, this doesn’t look right. It was supposed to curve around the other way. And I don’t even like this color! Why can’t I do this?? I give up!” “Finally, I’ve been waiting for that.” “For what? And who are you?” “I am the voice of Artistic Possibilities. I’ve been waiting for you to let go of your expectations of what a painting should look like. Remember all those pictures that you see? They are invitations, merely ways to get you to your easel or journal. Only then could the conversation between you and me really begin. When you are ready to listen with your Heart, I will sing to you of possibilities wanting to be expressed.” And so, for three days I asked for guidance, trusted my intuition, and completed my first “real” painting. Will I ever become skilled enough to paint pictures that I see exactly as I see them? Certainly not yet, perhaps never. But to be able to connect to something Unknown and make it Known, there’s real magic in that. Does it an artist make? I’d like to think so.

F E AT U R E D A R T I S T S

429

Maggy Herbert-Jobson Maggy Herbert-Jobson is a Brit. Born a Scouse, brought up in Chelsea, and now a passionate painter. A lifelong traveler, Maggy has lived, worked, and explored many continents and countries, always searching for the road less traveled. She has journeyed deep into the Americas, Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, South Africa, and the deep South Pacific. Always attracted by the enticement of the unknown and the possibility of building connections with those of lands and gifts differing. A late comer to painting, Maggy spent much of her life in international consulting. Her chosen path was both fast-track and demanding, but there was always a small journal hidden in her briefcase. This offered safe sanctuary and a private diary–memories which now often return, coded as simple but strong gestural marks. Banned from painting at the age of six for being messy (she says she still is!) that sanction remained in place for over 50 years. Imprinted on her deepest belief system was that she was simply not good enough. It was not until she had a serious riding accident and found herself in spinal rehab, that a much kinder Guide showed up and quietly encouraged her into the scary terra incognita. Her early work focussed on contemporary portraiture, probably seeking the comfort of some objectivity. But, over time she developed an increasing love of abstraction and the beguiling influences of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism and then, she fell in love. Now working in her bold expressive style, Maggy paints from the inside out, using her sensing, her feelings, and her memories to create strong gestural paintings, often from a limited palette,

430

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

but always with potent values. People are drawn to her paintings, because they feel able to connect with her work and make the story their own. Over the last two years, her work has been developed further by mentoring from Dr Nancy Hillis, of Santa Cruz, California. Maggy is an Alumna of Studio Journey, Nancy’s intensive program on creativity and abstraction and is now immersed in year 2 of Nancy’s Master Program. Maggy’s work is full of sensitivity and feeling, built layer by layer, each mark influencing the next. She works intuitively–often beginning with graphite or charcoal and then developing her work with acrylic or sometimes oil. She works on a variety of surfaces, previously often canvas or wood, but recently has increasingly enjoyed the freedom of paper to produce more expressive, raw work. In the last 20 years, her work has been selected regularly, year on year, for major national juried competitions and exhibitions. These include the UK’s prestigious Royal Institution of Painters in Watercolour and The Society of Women Artists. She has sold work in the Mall Galleries, London SW1 and from other galleries and exhibitions, to private collectors in Europe, South Africa and recently the US. She hopes you will enjoy looking at her work–as much as she has enjoyed creating it!

Kay Hunt Born and raised in Texas, I have lived in metro Atlanta, GA since 1969. For most of my life, creativity was present but not considered important. Later in life I decided to prioritize creating art, ultimately narrowing my focus down to abstract painting, I love building up layers, texture, color, and pattern and I often see the recurring ideas of complexity, mystery and ambiguity appearing in my works. Using acrylics, inks,

F E AT U R E D A R T I S T S

431

pastel, graphite, pencil, colored pencil, paper, or found materials (and more!), I work intuitively, spontaneously, and organically, one shape or color leading to the next. This process invites the unexpected and means I almost never know exactly how a painting will evolve or what the final image will be. That makes the experience both frustrating and exciting–and it keeps me coming back for more. Every piece teaches me something new about painting and about myself and often becomes the springboard to my next piece. Working in this way constantly challenges me to keep taking risks. Ultimately, these works are about the mood, energy, and spirit that are conveyed, and I thrive on the process of creating them. It provides a visceral way for me to connect to myself, my life and, hopefully, to the viewer.

Marina Ichikawa Marine biologist, therapist, artist (painting, sculptures, photography), mother, nomad, dreamer. Marina studied sculpture/clay work with Martine Vaugel, Bretagne 2016. She studies calligraphy with Tanahashi Kaz, Vienna, from 2000 onward. Marina attended Ècole Supérieure d’Art et Design (Toulon, Provence, France): 2017-2019 Marina Ichikawa started as a self-taught artist in her early childhood. After high school, her father (being an architect) enrolled her into a famous Viennese art school without her knowing. However, when she was accepted, she decided against and became a marine biologist. Nevertheless, different artistic practices (clay sculpturing, calligraphy, photography) always accompanied her until today, regardless of her geophysical or professional circumstances.

432

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Gisela Kissing The concept of the adjacent possible in Nancy’s teachings has served me to bring different directions of my life together and finally move forward as an artist. My question “what would happen, if I combine the principles of my work as a Healer and Coach with painting” was answered by a deeper call, to offer healing through my art and coaching to artists, who look for support, when feeling stuck. This process has become a transformational journey to my Self, guided by intuition and deep exploration. When working with acrylic, oil, or mixed media, I enjoy doing abstract and representational paintings alike. And most important, I love to include the underlying energy, that invisible, innate, spiritual essence and let it shine through to touch someone’s soul.

Kathy Lavine I’ve identified myself as an artist since an early age. Family members, particularly those on my mother’s side were commercial artists, illustrators, and an uncle who developed a character during WWII and went on to become a syndicated cartoonist after the war. My ambition was to become a fine artist. I’m fortunate to have been encouraged and supported by my family to pursue art. I studied at Pratt Institute, NY; The Art Institute of Boston, MassArt, and figure drawing at the LA School of Design.

F E AT U R E D A R T I S T S

433

Having been introduced to computer design during the 1980’s, I pursued a career as corporate Graphic Designer at Putnam Investments, Boston, MA; AD Little, Cambridge, MA; and Fidelity Investments, Boston, MA. I’ve also freelanced internationally. I was accepted as a working visual art resident at the Piano Factory in Boston’s South End, and a founding member of 300 Summer Street art community in South Boston, MA. While in residence I could pursue my fine artwork and begin showing. I also spent a month at The White Art Colony, Costa Rico as artist-in-residence. I’ve taught at the Boston School of Architecture, MA and The University of the Virgin Islands/ St. Croix and St. Thomas campuses, USVI. Also, individual one-on-one classes with adults, teens and primary school children. In the Virgin Islands I worked along-side Betsy Campen, fine art watercolorist. Together with about 20 other St Croix painters we organized and held the first art exhibition at Canegata Ballpark, Christiansted, USVI protesting unreasonable commission rates set by other shows. Currently, I’m slowly retiring my graphic design clients and joyfully spending most of my time in my studio discovering myself as a painter with Nancy Hillis.

Jane Lombard Jane grew up in the Middle East and moved to the United States as a teenager. Her diverse geographical background is matched by her diverse academic background. Though trained as a cardiologist with an MBA, she always loved to paint since childhood. She resumed practicing this passion later in life, but with the perspective of a scientist and healer.

434

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Art for her has always been meditative and freeing. She enjoys painting for the sake of the practice. She currently works out of a studio in Redwood City, CA, and lives with her husband, dog, and three-legged cat in Los Altos Hills, CA.

Brittany Lyn Brittany Lyn is an artist and registered nurse practicing in both palliative and intensive care. She lives and works in Ontario, Canada. Painting is where Brittany feels most alive. The process of creating shapes how she sees the world and is allowing her to find her voice within it.

Bob Reid Bob Reid’s love of abstract painting dates to the 1950s when he first encountered the work of Jackson Pollock. He pursued both painting and photography in the 1950s. Bob put this interest in abstract expression aside until 2014. Art for Bob is meditation. Painting and Photography brings him into the moment. His art represents his state of mind at the time it was created. His paintings evolve out of whirlpools of darkness, purity, light, and color; all intertwined with one another. On a basic level his work is about connectivity and being mindful. Bob and his wife, Anne, have travelled the world capturing images of many places– national and international. Bob’s motto is “Have Camera Will Travel”. Bob’s travels can be seen daily on social media. Bob exhibits in juried art shows and local community exhibits and has won numerous awards. His art is in many private and public collections.

F E AT U R E D A R T I S T S

435

Marilyn Simler My work explores images of the natural world through layers of colour, shape, line, and texture. Interwoven are elements of pattern. I like to think of my work as containing images and fragments of images that arrest the viewers’ attention and challenge their perceptions. After my first degree, I taught art at Redhill School in Johannesburg before emigrating to the UK in 1978. Since University in London, I have continued to be involved in the art world through regular exhibitions, in printmaking, and painting. I’m a South African artist, living in London and have received commissions from corporate and private clients, including the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. My work is represented in public collections including V&A print portfolio with the PMC, The Rolls Building London, and Unilever.

Karen Sparks I am a movement artist/teacher, an artist, and therapist. I have studied and walked along various paths involving personal/spiritual synthesis, wholeness, enlightenment, or individuation as others like to call it. I have always seen my life as one large story and journey in a larger story and journey which we are all a part of in this incredible movement thorough life and the universe itself. I am particularly interested in assisting others in in their healing journeys (becoming whole) and in expressing their true nature. The movement arts I do are Kung fu, Chi Kung, and Yoga and have been a source of inspiration for me along these lines as well. As a therapist, I am eclectic in my approach and as an artist, I am an explorer and enjoy expressing myself in a variety of styles.

436

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

I approach art as a path through which I can express the experiences along my life’s journey as well as expression of things that could be viewed as coming from the collective and seeking expression as well. I especially love movement, colour, and symbolism. I discovered Nancy’s work in 2020 when I read one her books and finally signed up for one of her courses in 2021. I really love Nancy’s work and feel very aligned with her approach. She has a real gift in assisting new and seasoned artists in opening up to the adjacent possible, transforming and freeing themselves to learn more of the practical as well as expand into the amazing possibilities of the unknown and the intuitive. As we see these things unfolding in our art, we can also reflect on these very same things in the larger story of our lives.

Vera Tchikovani Vera Tchikovani is an abstract and gestural painter. Her painting is a journey of self-discovery and a search for authenticity in artistic creation. Her process involves her whole being–emotional, intellectual, and physical. It reflects her life experiences, visions, and responses to life. She does not begin her painting with a preconceived plan or idea, but rather allows the subconscious to guide the process and establish the rhythm, harmony, and balance. She is especially committed to the search for simplicity and honesty in her art, and for the gesture, line, and color that best expresses her inner world.

F E AT U R E D A R T I S T S

437

Elizabeth Vander Schaaf Elizabeth Vander Schaaf, an abstract artist working in acrylics, mixed media, and collage, imbues her paintings with color, expressive marks, and sensitivity. Elizabeth is inspired by the spirit of exploration and adventure she experienced while growing up in many countries. She lives near New York City.

Lorraine Willis Lorraine is an intuitive abstract artist living in France. She uses acrylic, oil, and mixed media. She has exhibited in London and the south of England as well as Orleans and Bourges in France. She has always been moved by words and their meaning–especially the lyrics to certain songs, poetry, prose, and even random words placed together; these things evoke strong emotions and visual images for her work. She explores how words translate into abstract images and how marks and color combinations reflect written and spoken words. She observes how the viewer makes their own connections and translates what they see back into their own words and feelings.

438

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Cheryl Wilson Cheryl Wilson is an abstract artist. She paints intuitively by embracing spontaneity to allow passionate paintings to be born through a transforming layering process of acrylics and inks. Each layer informs the next story of paint. Cheryl’s creations are bold and expressive abstracts with layer upon layer of paint scrapes and expressive marks. In addition to layers often you will find sand, coffee, glass beads, or perhaps even a gum wrapper invoking the question of what story is being revealed.

F E AT U R E D A R T I S T S

439

About the Authors Nancy Hillis, M.D. is a Stanford educated existential psychiatrist, abstract artist, speaker, founder of The Artist’s Journey® and The Adjacent Possible® art classes, artist’s retreats, and creativity workshops, and best-selling author of the award-winning book The Artist’s Journey: Bold Strokes To Spark Creativity, named one of the Top 100 Creativity Books of all time by BookAuthority and winner of the Reader’s Favorite International Book Award Silver Medal. She has been featured in Inc. and The New York Post. You can find her at www.artistsjourney.com.

Bruce Sawhill, Ph.D. is a Stanford educated theoretical physicist, mathematician, musician, composer, and elite swimmer. He is an avid classicist, having taught at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM, where he began to ponder the connections between the scientific and humanistic traditions. Bruce has also completed a solo swim across Lake Tahoe, 12 miles in 68-degree water. He finds that long open water swims in deep water are conducive to deep thought.

Nancy and Bruce make their home in the seaside town of Santa Cruz, California, a place teeming with creativity and the fecundity of the land and sea.

440

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

Other Books by Nancy Hillis, M.D.

The Artist’s Journey: Bold Strokes To Spark Creativity

A psychological and philosophical exhortation to trust yourself and say YES to your deepest dreams. A “why-to”, not a “how-to” book to unleash your creativity and express your deepest, most experimental art. Challenge limiting beliefs, develop your creativity, unlock the true you, access your authentic self, and discover your hidden potential. A best-selling self-help and creativity book named one of the Top 100 Creativity Books of all time by BookAuthority and winner of the Reader’s Favorite International Book Award Silver Medal.

OTHER BOOKS

441

The Artist’s Journey: Creativity Reflection Journal

An inspirational self-help journal crafted to activate the inner sources of your creativity and the outer reaches of your imagination. Creativity is central to feeling alive. Spark your imagination with creativity prompts, poetic musings, and stories inviting you to reflect on and activate the inner sources of your creativity.

442

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE

The Adjacent Possible: Evolve Your Art From Blank Canvas To Prolific Artist

The science of creativity, the art of the possible–this book is a revolutionary method influenced by groundbreaking research in biology and physics to guide you to embrace the unfolding of your art. At the pivot point between creation and collapse, you’ll experience a state of poised instability–a world of continuous creation. Being an artist is about evolving your art. It’s about cultivating your fullest self-expression and getting to the elusive deepest work your heart yearns to create.

OTHER BOOKS

443

444

THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE