When we have an artistic impulse, sometimes we KNOW what it’s pulling us towards – our creation already exists inside us, and our quest is to manifest that imagined reality in the physical universe.

PinocchioIt’s kind of like the Pinocchio story, but from Geppetto’s side:  “I long for a son. I see him so clearly and love him so desperately that he is real to me!  Aaaagh but he isn’t real to everyone else.  Wait!  I will build that son!  If I do it well enough, he will become real and he will love me back!

[Thanks to Wikipedia for the image at left]

Sometimes I experience the thing I’m creating as if it already exists before I create it, like Geppetto did.  When that happens, the vision pulls me through the creative process and the struggle (yes, I experience it as a struggle and I love struggling with it) is to create what I’ve imagined into the real world with so much truth that other people can actually experience what I once only imagined.

yes, I experience it as a struggle and I love struggling with it Click To Tweet

That is a true artistic success.

But sometimes I DON’T have a vision.  I just have a restless, longing quest for I don’t know what.  Or I feel nothing and I want to feel something.

When that happens, I don’t need to realize my creation – need to discover my creation.

One of the best ways, as an artist, to embark on a journey of discovery is to commit to a practice — and allow it to work on you.  

The book “Eat, Pray, Love” was a book about that kind of quest – where the author began the practice with no idea what it would lead to.

Musician Jonathan Coulton’s “Thing a Week” project was that kind of quest:  Coulton commitment to create and release one new ‘thing’ a week – a new MP3, a new music video, whatever.  The quest was to see where that would take him, to discover the artist he would become, to let the journey shape HIM.

The quest was to let the journey shape HIM Click To Tweet

It was a journey of BECOMING.

In my yearlong Mastermind, “Harness Your Muse” I work with artists who make a yearlong commitment to themselves as artists – a commitment to complete works, and to release them, and a commitment to practices that will reveal their own art both to themselves and the world.

Some see clearly where they want to go, others are starting the journey to find out where they’re going.

How about you?

Do you know what you want to create or to perform?  Do you see it, hear it, feel the shape of it inside you?  Do you KNOW it’s there and long to move closer to it?

In either situation, developing an artistic practice of creation-search-and-discovery is a powerful first step – and that’s what we do in my “Harness Your Muse” mastermind.

What’s your practice? How do you bring it alive? Click To Tweet

How about you? What’s your practice? What have you discovered on your journey? How are you bringing it alive?

Are you searching for more clarity on that?  Fill out the application for my “Harness Your Muse” program – seriously, just fill out the application – because the application process itself will give you clarity.

Do you want to shift that journey into high gear? Do you know you can’t do it alone? Join me and an incredible group of musicians for a year that will change your life.  Learn more an apply here: HarnessYourMuse.com

 

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