We’ve had a number of mixed-media artists pen fantastic essays about inspiration and creativity in our Cloth Paper Scissors magazine column Releasing the Creative Spirit. In this latest installment (also featured in our November/December 2017 issue), artist Carrie Schmitt shares how she embraces her creative spirit to create art from a place of love. Enjoy!
Releasing the Creative Spirit: Making Art from a Place of Love by Carrie Schmitt
“The secret of art is love.” ~ Antoine Bourdelle
When I was going through a divorce, I feared my days as a full-time painter might come to an end due to my new financial situation. Suddenly, my art became more precious. Realizing our time together might come to an end, I no longer took my relationship with art for granted. Even the struggles during the creative process became bittersweet. My paintings and I became a team. Finally, I saw my art for what it was—a living, breathing entity. Creating became a passionate and tender act of love.
My paintings are alive to me now. I had tapped into a deeper place of love. I had blurred the lines of material physical reality, and was able to experience my art as a vibrational energetic presence. Now, I like to say that I love my paintings into being.
At my retreats, I try to produce this experience for participants. First, we create a beautiful environment conducive to loving one another, our creative process, and ourselves. We throw rose petals on the ground and burn sweet-smelling candles. We dress ourselves in gowns that make us feel alive and festive and desirable. We honor and seduce the creative spirit.
We meditate to calm our mind and body into a state of relaxation, acknowledging the body’s incredible role in our creative process. We practice yoga and dance to clear our energy channels and allow the flow of creative energy to find expression. We dance in ways that physically and energetically open our heart. We visualize how our heart participates in the loving act of creation. This helps us tap into our intuition and emotions rather than work from our critical mind.
“Who told you that one paints with colors? One makes use of colors, but one paints with emotions.” ~ Jean–Baptiste–Siméon Chardin
We listen to a playlist of love songs I created, and we sing aloud. Singing activates our throat chakra, the energetic center in our body connected with creativity and communication and finding our voice. We sway our hips and awaken the creative parts of ourselves as we paint. We let our emotions flow freely onto the canvas. We become one with our creative process. We continue to paint and keep accepting and loving our art into being while simultaneously accepting and loving ourselves. When you work from a place of love for yourself and for your creativity, this energy will manifest into physical form as your art.
We are often taught to quiet those aspects of ourselves where our creativity resides. Our sensuality, our voices, our bodies, all play a role in the wholeness of our creative expression. To embrace our divine creative feminine spirit, we embrace our fullness with an unlimited capacity to commune and co-create with the creative spirit that is always accessible to us.
Carrie Schmitt is an artist, author, yoga instructor, and retreat facilitator. Her art is sold in galleries, in private collections internationally, and is licensed for clothing, home décor, accessories, toys, and stationery. Carrie lives in Seattle, Washington, and teaches workshops and retreats throughout the country. She is the author of Painted Blossoms: Creative Expressive Flowers with Mixed Media from North Light Books. Visit her website at carrieschmittdesign.com.
For more inspiring words from Carrie, read her guest post on finding your individual style as an artist.
Shop Carrie’s books and videos below for much more inspiration!
Plus, don’t miss the November/December 2017 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine!
