Repeats Are A Good Thing

Been working on several pieces at once this past week. While one is drying I play with another piece. These are a few shots of a canvas my daughter requested in shades of purple and blue. Wish the picture quality was better, still these give you an idea of what they are like.

Also been reading more from Michele Cassou in Point Zero, she has some interesting thoughts and observations so I thought I'd share a few more with you. I've already posted about the dragons of creative block that we face, but then she goes into several chapters on each of the dragons. One that struck me was a chapter on 'Repeats."

"Doing something more than once is often thought of as being uninventive and uninspired. It attracts the Dragon of Control, which loves to struggle with it."

She explains that there are two types of repeats, a 'controlled repeat' done out of our own frustrations when we can't come up with anything new to do. Then there is what she calls, 'spontaneous repeats' which arise out of a deep place of feeling and exploration, when something powerful or significant is being exposed and so we return to it again and again, each time going a little deeper into the heart of inspiration.

Michele says, "The full expression of certain feelings can happen only through repetitions. Repeats signal substance rather than dullness. Dragons try to discourage painters from going further by making them think they are wasting their time.  During repeats, the painter is actually exploring some new inner ground, some place out of the way, some secret area difficult to reach."

Repeats can come in the form of repeated patterns, symbols, gestures or images, etc.  Now I don't know about you but I found that very encouraging, because I find myself often wanting to re-explore some gesture or pattern in my work and have worried that I might just be a one act show!  Anyhow, something to consider as you face the next blank page or canvas or whatever your creative outlet might be.

NOTE: This is an old post that went unpublished so I decided to share it now as you might enjoy what I shared from the book, Point Zero.