Creating My Life One Step at a Time

Frequently when I begin a piece of artwork, I have a general concept of what I want to create and only a vague sense of how to get there.

And other times I only have a vague sense of what I want to create and no idea how to get there!

Like this piece:

I have no idea what I'm doing here! I just started creating a background for something because I liked how it felt to do it. I painted colors on the canvas. Then I ripped up pieces of paper--that definitely felt good!--and decoupaged them, as well as some washi tape, onto the canvas. I applied some rub-ons, then added some modeling paste applied through a stencil via a palette knife. And, voilá, the result above.

It's not yet finished even as a background. I need to do something to prepare the background to support a foreground image. I'm just waiting to feel what my next step is, and when I do, I'll take it.

This is how my new Creating Challenge feels. As I Create My Life, I am taking plenty of time to sense what needs to come next. Sometimes I feel I should spend plenty of time in thought and meditation, allowing the big picture to reveal itself. Other times, I only know the next practical step to take.

It makes this process of creating my life feel so artful, and I love that! I can embrace the unknown and believe that when I need to know my next step, I will. In the meantime, I have plenty to do.

One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from Rainer Maria Rilke: 

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. 

And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

I've always resonated with this quote, but perhaps for the first time in my life I'm comfortable living it.