Intuitive Painting For Overthinkers

This one is for my fellow overthinkers who at some point shirked their intuition and evolved into overthinkers. No matter what influenced your route to over thinking, take relief in knowing that there are many paths back to your intuition. You cannot lose it, but rather it becomes buried in thoughts and constructs of time. I would like to share a creative exercise with you that is one of many ways to remind yourself of your powerful and quite honestly, beautiful intuition. And don’t worry, you don’t have to be an ar-teest.

You know how they say “what got you here won’t get you there”? Well, I started realizing that overthinking and data overload is what got me here. While I believe learning is my #1 hobby of all time, I realized that knowledge consumption and even journaling/writing wouldn’t be what would get me intuitive knowing.

Doing is becoming - so I had to do the thing of feeling and experiencing. Experiencing and expressing this intuitive knowing. To experience my Intuition I’d have to stop my thinking addiction. Instead of trying to think my way into my subconscious (which is impossible anyway) I’ll have to find a different way to get information out of this dark, unreachable space. I will have to become a subconscious thought alchemist.

This alchemy is how you will experience magic in your life. This is how you will pull something from seemingly nothing; conjuring up wisdom and knowing. Think of the most intuitive person you know - they carry this air of mysticism to them, as if they can see more colors in the rainbow or somehow know what animals are saying.  I feel that our Intuition (Deep Brain, Subconscious, Higher Self - whatever fits yee fancy) is the closest thing us humans have to a superpower. 

I USED TO PAINT

I made paintings for friends and some paintings for my home. I have spent years as a professional graphic designer. I’ve made cards and comic strips. However, these intuition paintings are the first time I feel like I’ve made A-R-T. There is so much of my SELF in them. It is a little polaroid of some crevice in my subconscious, with real feeling and self poured into it and it is completely void of thoughts; something my previous art and design work always had elements of. In fact, logo design (my specialty) is the transformation of thoughts into a symbol - the complete opposite of this exercise! 

This exercise is all about following one’s sense of beauty. We all have a different set of images, colors, environments and styles that call to us. This is not to be confused with what we’re told is beautiful by the media. Beauty is just what speaks to you, what calls you. Its hard to define but I think this is a lot like pornography - when you see it, you know it.

The basic tools you’ll need for this exercise: paint, paper to paint on, paint brush, some cardstock or thicker paper, a pen or pencil, scissors. Optional: glue, list of feelings and physical sensations (I used this one I found on the internet: Link)

Don’t worry if you don’t consider yourself an artist. I dare say that this practice would be especially valuable for people who are not formally trained in art. They would have nothing influencing them telling them “this is balance and balance is beauty”. You’ll be able to draw on your baseline sense of beauty, and not what you’ve been taught. So please, don’t let the thought “I’m not good at art” or “I’m not an artist” get in the way. Once you do one of these, you are officially an artist.

I created a quick demo of a painting just for you to show how I go about it. Check it out:

HOW DO YOU DO THIS EXERCISE?

Grab your paintbrush and see what you’re drawn to. What color does your eye go to? Go with that color. Does it feel beautiful to you? Great, put that color on the page. Where you ask? Well, wherever you think it would look beautiful. In any shape or size and the quantity that feels good until another color starts calling out to you. You can’t do this wrong. Just keep asking yourself - what next? Or, and now what? Seriously, just relax. It is impossible to do this wrong.

So… paint. Paint whatever is there in that moment. Sometimes for me it is really bright and sometimes it’s pretty damn dark (but still following a sense of beauty, I can’t explain it). Just see what is in you that would like to be recognized. 

The really bright and the really dark:

WORDPLAY

After you’ve done your painting you’re going to feel out for some words. Again, don’t think about it. Just look at the art you just made and write down the words that come to mind for you. Yes, even that word that seems really random. Or don’t, throw it out if you think you should or if it seems like maybe you’ve had a Beastie Boys song stuck in your head all morning (Eggman!).

Write these words on the card stock paper as they come to you. You’ll want to give them a little space so you can cut each word out and try to make the rectangles equal size. Then, you’ll flip over the words and mix them up so you don’t know what word is on which. This will be your second intuitive tap in this exercise.

What you wanna do is just scan over all these little rectangular shapes and see which one feels like the yes. For me, it kind of feels like a tap. It doesn’t really physically feel like anything, except for your eyes are drawn to something. This is kind of like when you’re in a museum and you look at some art. There is a spot your eyes go to first… and then second.. and so on - that's you connecting with something, being silently called without having to think about it. At no point should this feel stressful. It should feel like an archeological dig. There's some effort in feeling around for the bones but it's just a practice in seeking. No matter what, the very act of doing this will cause the dirt to move.

Another way to do this is just look at all of the pieces over all and imagine the number. Imagine where you see the next number in line. 

Take your little unknown words and arrange them either on your painting (if it is dry) or on a surface. When you’ve arranged all the words (and feel free to take ALL the time to do this, its kind of fun) you can go ahead and flip them over and POW - now you’re an artist AND a damn poet. WHAT’S UP!

NO WRONG WAY

I’ve had times where a little word didn’t even make it on the board and even that seemed intentional, so I left the word off. I repeat: there is no wrong way to do this. Which is exactly the kind of practice us over thinkers need. We overthink because we want to know the right answer, right? No matter what you do, it’s the right answer. No matter how you take in a breath of air, it’s the right answer because it keeps you alive. Or something.

I’ve started running the voice recorder on my phone when I do these paintings so when random thoughts bubble up I can just say them out loud and continue to paint. It seems to be just relaxing enough of an activity that the subconscious loosens up and things float up. That’s the thing with the subconscious, the house of our intuition… it’s like peripheral vision or the sun; you can’t look directly at it, but you can still experience it. Or something.

I was reading two books during the same week timeframe when I started this intuitive exercise. I combined the things I learned in Opening Intuitive Flow Through Artwork and Living in the Deep Brain: Connecting with Your Intuition. So, shout out to these readings for the inspiration.