Life is an Art - For Best Results, Add Inspiration
I am an artist. I love to paint and draw. I also love creating in the kitchen. I like to relax by crocheting, sewing and embroidery.
Art is free-flowing. You can’t force art.
Usually the process of creating something begins with inspiration. I see (or taste) the finished product in my mind’s eye and then I start to build it.
What begins as nothing but a vision in my own mind, becomes something beautiful and shareable that others can see and enjoy along with me.
I have no trouble giving space and time to the creative process, and even backing off if I feel blocked or like I don’t know what I’m supposed to do next.
Once, I was making a quilt. I was using ‘found’ fabrics that were generations old. There was a limited quantity of the fabric, so I was very careful to cut around the print in a way to stretch it across the whole face of the quilt.
When I got ready to sew the quilt blocks together, I realized that the blocks were too small! There was no more fabric, and it felt like I had made a mistake.
No worries - this is art - inspiration will come - I took a step away.
A few days later, waking up in the early morning hours, I ‘saw’ the quilt completed in my imagination. There was a tiny border or salmon colored fabric around every quilt block. I jumped up from my bed and immediately went to my sewing room. The very fabric I envisioned was only inches away from the quilt I had stashed until I knew the next step.
The quilt top is now complete. It is beautiful and the salmon color made the blocks really pop! It is so much prettier because of the ‘mistake.’
ARTIST NOTES: The tiny border around the large print at the bottom center is the piece I added after realizing I had made the block too small. If I had not added the pinky color, it would have seemed a little drab. I also was inspired to cut around the picture (fussy-cut is the quilt-term), and I appliqued it onto a larger white block, rather than cutting a square block around the picture, which would have cut into the other pictures and I wouldn't have been able to use all the antique fabric.
How different I seem to approach life and my business. When I get stuck on a project, I tend to want to force it so I can check it off my list. I try to figure it out, even get angry that things are not working out the way I envisioned.
What an epiphany to realize that life and business fall under that category of ‘art’ because it’s not an exact science.
Science and systems can build beautiful results. Robots can be programmed to follow an artistic system, and even make a beautiful painting using a Fibonacci Sequence. It can be called ‘art’, but a robot can not go beyond the programming.
The Fibonacci Sequence is based on nature. God used these mathematical formulas that already exist, to create everything. Leonardo Fibonacci just discovered the mathematical formula. He did not invent the formula.
God put the breath of life into the scientific blueprint and placed seeds within every one of His creations, and commanded them to multiply and replenish, to continue perpetuating the beauty and perfect ratios that were planned and organized from the beginning.
The earth, and we, are designed with the perfect ratios that, to God and the human eye, appear most beautiful and artistic.
Those ratios can be duplicated and copied, but it is not until a life force is added to the blueprint that it becomes art.
For instance, Michelangelo’s *’David’ statue is different from any other version of the giant-killer created by other artists prior to Michelangelo’s most famous of all the depictions. In most of the previous art renditions, David was shown as a small figure, the victor over the giant. Whereas, Michelangelo depicted David in huge proportions, moments before the sling was released. He was not yet victorious.
The expression of David’s face is one of concentration, sizing up his opponent and estimating the distance and height and force needed to hit the one vulnerable spot. The stance of his body, with all the weight on the right leg, as if drawing up energy for forward motion (think of a pitcher winding up for the throw), exudes purpose and intention for decisive action. David knew he only had one shot to bring the huge Philistine down.
In Michelangelo’s rendition of the famous Bible story, David IS the Giant!
No robot could have made the decision to touch the soul of the observer so profoundly, by going off the beaten path, taking Goliath out of the picture completely, to inspire in this unique and powerful way!
Yes, David’s body is perfectly proportioned according to Fibonacci, yet the inspired artist brought all the elements of courage, confidence, godly power, physical strength and skill into his masterpiece. A logical decision based on a scientific formula alone could never have inspired him to select that moment of deliberation, frozen in time in Michelangelo’s statue.
The same is true that no AI tool can decide what combination of words written in a book will produce a classic that immortalizes an author. Nor can a scientific marketing system alone energetically touch the souls of those who need what you offer in your business.
Life is an art. Business is an art.
We, as humans who desire to become all that we were designed to be, are systematically aligning through inspiration. We begin with the scientific systems and proven methods, yes. Then we take a step back, and wait for the ideas of how to make it uniquely our own rest upon our minds.
We have been given space here on earth to create. Discoveries like the Fibonacci Sequence, Chat GPT and other AI tools, tried and true marketing systems, etc. can give us a beginning. Inspiration takes the system beyond the ordinary and can elevate it to an artistic masterpiece.
Without inspiration, there is no variety. The method and the result are predictable.
With inspiration, the artist is just as thrilled and amazed by the finished product as the onlooker.
God’s way is to allow. Allow inspiration to settle upon us and move at the speed at which we know what’s next.
I have never, when I sat down to work on a painting, said, “I just have to get this done!” I always allow myself to work on the painting as long as I know what to do. If I am uncertain of what is next, I put the painting away. There is a chance of ruining the painting if I force myself to keep going, or do it the way I think it should be done. Stepping away and coming back with fresh eyes is the best way to move with the process. When I am creating I allow inspiration to guide me, rather than trying to control the steps or the outcome.
I see my life and business differently now that I am categorizing them as ‘art.’
Looking from this perspective, it seems way easier to just allow my life and the steps to create a successful business to unfold naturally for me. If I’m stumped, it seems easier now to allow myself to take a break until I know the next step, rather than trying to force it or figure it out.
I am reminded that every time I entertain a vision of what could be, I ascend time and move into infinite possibility.
Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.”
ALL Life Creation is a work of art. It takes knowledge AND imagination to produce a work of art.
Any vision I imagine and the tasks necessary to bring the vision into physical manifestation, are received by inspiration and carried out with confidence in my God that all things work together for His purpose and to glorify Him through my gifts.
God is the source of inspiration of my vision. He inspires me with the steps and He is the means of my strength and skill to complete the vision. Therefore, if I look to God in all things, all that I do is art.
God wants me to succeed, His way is to allow, so allowing must be the way to success. I now see that, as an art, life is easy and I ascend above the ‘shoulds’, ‘have-to’s’, ‘need-to’s’. I am not certain it will be enough, or that I will be enough for the finished product (an art piece, my business or my life) to be a success. But apparently God does see it because He inspired me to begin the creation. And that is enough for me because I believe God never makes a mistake. Every one of His creations is a masterpiece.
*”David” by Michelangelo By Jörg Bittner Unna - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109727478
