The Magic of Spontaneous Expression
Even if we are not aware of it, each one of us longs to
create, to manifest what is unique inside of us, to give
it form. Freedom is necessary for pure creation take
place. The pressures and demands of an expected
result must go. We need to re-enter the present by
the simple act of being spontaneous. Intuition
guides us. Trusting the flow that comes naturally
is the magic of creation. The hidden, the
mysterious, the sacred from within are revealed.
Old patterns break. The natural movement of
creation becomes part of our life. Passion sets in.
The Experience of Painting
by Michele Cassou
There is a piece of paper in front
of me. It is white and has a feeling of aliveness and
depth, as if I could be absorbed in it. I feel this
pressure, this call from the paper. My hand starts going
toward the paints, and I see myself taking a dark red or
a 'violet or a blue. I let the form come; I do not
choose, decide, or compose. As I draw the first line my
heart is beating strongly and my breath is rapid. My
whole body tingles as I touch the piece of paper. I feel
like someone who has discovered a new land for the first
time.
When I look at the painting I am
surprised; it seems as though something has taken form
inside me and on the paper at the same time. I receive
it, not in my mind but in my body, and the message goes
back and forth, a dance between me and the painting
completing itself. The colors just come, I go toward them
without reason.
I started painting 30 years ago, when I
enrolled into several art schools in Paris. They taught
the way of learning step by step, obeying the rules and
concepts, slowly mastering the skill in hopes of
eventually developing creativity. I was terribly
frustrated to observe such a gap between my feelings and
my expression. I felt unworthy, incapable, and without
talent or possibility. After two years of trying I gave
up painting, I thought forever.
A year later I was lucky enough to
experience what I call the second alternative. I was
thrilled. I could not believe the expression of my
creativity was so close to me. I became impassioned; I
painted from six to twelve hours a day for years. A
volcano was erupting from my being, and I was delighted
to really feel and release the pressure within me. I
realized that my concepts about beauty and art on the one
hand and my desire for approval on the other were
preventing me from expressing myself. So for a long time
I didn't show my work. I wanted to protect my freedom to
paint ugly, absurd, fantastic, dull, childish paintings -
the freedom to do anything I felt like doing. I saw that
when I stopped putting any idea of achievement in the
painting, the colors and forms came to me in a very
natural way. It was like something being born. At that
time I did not want to look back on my paintings; I had
to forget what I had done to have greater freedom to go
on. I discovered that what is important for me when I
paint is the process, not the painting. The value of the
painting is the value of the process I go through.
The two voices
by Michele Cassou
We are not used to discriminating between
the two ways of painting. The first way is the voice of
reason. It knows what it wants and where it goes. It is
the way of decision, effort, achievement, comparison,
success and failure. It first conceives and then acts, it
is never direct or total action. Listening to this voice
is working in the past with the past, and the only
satisfaction is intellectual. Such a work needs approval
and recognition from others, being incomplete at the
beginning and trying everlastingly to fulfill itself.
There is a strong belief that techniques,
knowledge and training are necessary to paint well. There
is a tremendous fear of helplessness if we think of not
acting from the proddings of this voice. We believe that
it is bringing order and harmony and that decisions are
necessary. When I paint I see that choice only comes from
confusion. If I hesitate between two colors, I can be
sure that my expressiveness is blocked and that I am
outside the creative flow. The first voice supports my
conflict, my unconscious decisions, and my hidden
resistance to feeling. It tells me in advance what I
should paint. It tells me what color to choose, thinking
of the effect. It tells me to reproduce what I think I
see, and ultimately what I think I feel.
There is another way in art, natural art
I will call it, free of result. It has a depth and a
direction of exploration. There is no anchor to it,
nowhere to arrive, nothing to grab, no end to it. When we
listen to this voice all colors and forms have just one
way to be without doubt or hesitancy. They flow with a
rhythm so perfect and precise that it dictates even the
direction in which every line has to be painted, from
left to right or reverse, and if for some practical
reason we try to turn it around, the painting does not
breathe in the same way. The painting is a living thing
and cannot be manipulated. If we are able to give up
control and follow its movement, the painting goes its
own way perfectly. If we don't paint in this way, we
paint on paper, it becomes just a piece of paper with
color.
I remember some years ago painting a
woman on a very large surface. I worked for days and
finished everything except a place in the circle of her
arms which remained white. I had no idea whatsoever why
it stayed white. By the time I completed the painting, a
baby being nursed appeared to my great surprise. The
space fit his body exactly in position for nursing. After
that day I gave up trying to control my work because I
learned that I could really trust my painting. Each thing
comes at its own time and its demand is always different.
A new color, an unexpected line will appear and complete
the painting with a peculiar rhythm and style that was
never there before. It's like the beauty in a flower or a
leaf. How perfect it is. When I listen to the second
voice it has the perfection of nature, because it is
nature.
Sometimes there is a desire to start a
new painting before the last one is finished. I have many
discussions with my students on this point. I tell them
that when it is really finished there is a very precise
and deep feeling of satisfaction -whatever the painting
looks like. Leaving an unfinished painting is like
leaving an unfinished relationship, there is a regret
that in a subtle way will affect the next painting.
Often students don't realize that their
feeling is passing through their mind before it goes on
the paper. This is the greatest challenge of my teaching.
What I encourage them to discover is the capacity to take
feelings directly from their guts and their heart and put
them on paper, without intermediary. Then something opens
in them, often to their surprise, and they become deeply
interested in painting.
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