Process painting and writing Book 2

In September 2006, I attended a meditation retreat at Spirit Rock about creativity, taught by Anna Douglas and painter Mayumi Oda. (It happens every year; you can see this year’s retreat info here.) During the retreat, we were given paint and paper and work space, and we were told to paint whatever we wanted. Since I’m not a painter, I found it to be incredibly freeing.

At the time, I had been having trouble getting back into the groove of my writing, and going on the retreat completely opened me and brought me back to the story. It did this because using paint and color was a totally different way of approaching writing. As a writer, I was so used to working with words — and working with them in particular, practiced ways — that it took an entirely new medium to break through the writer’s block.

After the retreat, I was so inspired by the painting that I bought a set of acrylic paints and some paper, with the intention to paint in the future if I felt stuck again in my writing. But I only used the paints once — until yesterday.

For the last month or so (give or take the holidays), I’ve been working on writing my next book (aka Book 2), which is due to my publisher sooner than I might like. As a reporter I got used to working on deadline, and I thought that this would be no different. (cue hysterical laughter) Suffice it to say that it’s been difficult.

Now, I’ve never really been one to talk about the mysteriousness of "process" and all that "artist" stuff. For me, the stereotype of "the artist" just reeks of too much lying about on a divan and moaning about inspiration (or the lack thereof). But I’ve really enjoyed Justine Larbalestier’s month-long writing advice blogs, and I’ve always liked hearing about other writers’ methods of coping with getting the words out. (Especially Ursula K. Le Guin’s essays on the subject — highly recommended.)

And the longer I spend as a writer, the more it becomes clear to me that "process," though frustrating, is something I have to go through. In an effort to speed up the process, I broke out those paints. My goal was to get to know the main character of Book 2 a bit more. It also revealed a few things about Book 2 that I didn’t know yet.

I’m a little superstitious about revealing too much about anything I’m writing before I’ve written it (and revised it, and revised it again), so I won’t reveal anything too specific here. Or, rather, I’ll be so specific that it won’t tell much about the story as a whole. But since I’m not a painter, I’m not so concerned about revealing the paintings I did. They’re not "art" and they don’t have to be "pretty"; they’re what Anna Douglas called "process painting." They were helpful to me because they helped bring out what I had been subconsciously thinking about Book 2.

For the first one, I aimed to paint the main character. I started off with a circle because Mayumi Oda had asked us, at that retreat, to paint the heart as a mandala. I wanted to do that for the main character: her heart as a mandala. Here it is:

From Book 2 Process Paintings

After I finished, this painting told me that my main character has a very secret desire within her. I don’t know how it told me that, but after looking at the painting, I could see it coming out of her in that green bit and the dark red. Her desire is powerful, but she doesn’t really understand it.

I didn’t figure this out until this morning, though, after I’d let the painting sit overnight. After I finished painting it, I thought I’d better paint another one, because I didn’t initially understand it. So I painted this:

From Book 2 Process Paintings

I think that this is telling me that the story is about two people and their conflicts. There is a bloody tree, and some fallen leaves. And fire. Fire seems to have a big place in Book 2. I see this one, now, as sort of a messed-up yin-yang.

So, by this time I was loving what I was doing, so I painted another one:

From Book 2 Process Paintings

This one I still don’t really understand. Maybe it’s just about colors I like. The only thing I know for certain is that my main character’s color is red, and the other one — the one with whom she has the conflicted relationship — is gold. That’s what I got out of it.

Today, after looking at my paintings, I got back in the saddle (so to speak), and wrote. The words came easier, because I knew more about the characters. And I really enjoyed the painting. I might just do it again.

Related posts:

1. What I learned from abstract painting class, part 1
2. What I learned from abstract painting class, part 3
3. The process

Tagged as: Book 2