Absorbify

Absorbify: to become absorbent ground for the creativity you’ve been waiting to express; to allow yourself to take in what’s out there, waiting for you to reclaim

Absorbent Ground

I recently gave myself the gift of taking a serious art class. I committed to six half-day sessions learning mixed media techniques. And I loved it.

When I was a kid, I made art every day. I drew and drew and drew. Most usually beautiful women in exquisite outfits. Turns out I wanted to be a fashion or costume designer. I wanted to be Bob Mackie.

But I couldn’t sew.

Still, I pursued things creative in college and university, studying art and creative writing or, as I call it, earning a cocktail party education. Virtually useless, except it helped land me in my profession – publicity – one I didn’t know existed until I started doing it.

I made art every day until the day I graduated with a BFA. And it isn’t actually a Bachelor of Fuck All.

Anyway, I graduated. And I stopped making art. There were a lot of reasons, most of them weren’t good ones.

But then, a few years later, a co-worker invited me to a drawing group. It was a Tuesday night session with a model, and I started going every week. It was wonderful to be making art again.

“They” always said that you had to make art every day, to keep practicing to maintain your skill. But I had put it away for four years and I was astonished to realize that I not only did I still have some skill, I had actually grown and evolved, as if I had been making art every day, all along.

Years passed. I went in and out of phases of making art. And there was always some growth along the way. One of the most important things I ever learned was from Julia Cameron in The Artists Way – to give myself permission to create bad art. Doing that made it much easier to show up, and to make anything at all.

Give yourself permission to make bad art!

During those times when I wasn’t making art, I jealously held on to the notion that I could still be an artist if I really wanted. I just didn’t choose to be one.

Why are artists so insecure to proclaim their art and own their ability to make it? Doctors, lawyers, plumbers can all call themselves by their trades and crafts and professions.

Why are artists too bashful to call themselves artists? I’d spent five years in art school. Wasn’t I technically an educated artist?

So, last winter, I started back and took a mixed media course.

Our first class was doing tiny abstract landscapes.  Instead of using gesso - painters’ primer to prepare the surface - we used what’s called “absorbent ground.” It sort of repels acrylic paint, giving it more the workability of watercolour. It was a wonderful new medium for me.

Absorbent ground. I just loved the name. And it reminded me of something I’d heard about a mustard seed taking root and persisting in deep, fertile ground.

Sonya, my very kind and gifted instructor, suggested we include some writing in our works. So, I grabbed a pencil and scribbled “absorbent ground.” And that’s the title.

I loved that class. It opened up a whole new vista on the art I want to make and do make now.

And I was able to do it because, like the medium and my painting, I allowed myself to be absorbent ground.

So absorbify. Allow yourself to be the absorbent ground for what’s out there, waiting for you to reclaim. It was always yours.

Absorbify. Be a channel for the creativity you’ve been waiting to express.