Learning to Unlearn what you have Learned

Art done by Bea Victoria Cameron, in class, charcoal on paper

Art done by Bea Victoria Cameron, in class, charcoal on paper

Today's class rendered magnificent results. I am profoundly inspired by my students who have tapped into their untampered artist voice and, in the process, making us students of one another. Today's summation gives me hope that any conditioning done on one's psyche can be undone or re-corrected, and that, together we may continue to aid each other in our pursuit of those realizations.

The goal today was to eliminate any preconceptions one may have had of oneself, to rid oneself of any ideals of how art should be made or how art has been made, and to not be conscious of one's byproduct during the act of doing. The idea that any past-conditioning done on one's psyche, whether it be factors of environment or impositions of an institution or society or culture, can now be undone by-way-of simply becoming aware.

Having said, we must now continue and find the inlet (or gateway) where art can be experienced and made from a more revelatory place.

"Do not take stock in public opinion–for these waters, yet traveled, are void of such." 
-The Speaker  

Take a moment to consider that one must first rid oneself of anxiety and expectations entirely. Do away with filters, with critic and with any acknowledgment of a prior foundation. These things were never yours to begin with and they are no longer of any service to you. They were conditions and definitions imposed on you without your realizing, through schools and societal learning–such a convincing argument they've made, at that. Be prepared to lose any stock of which you no longer have use.
Furthermore, expel the idea of right and wrong, good or bad or any other sects, for that matter. Become aware of any constructs that may have been imposed on us through conditions of environment and upbringing. Know them. Become fully aware of them. Question them. Expunge them. Because, one cannot rid oneself of superficial means if one has not honestly identified and become fully aware of those means which are superficial.

This superficial state was never your own. You are not superficial, you never were. You were taught such a thing. And, you'd better believe that an influence such as this has its own intentions. It was subtly implanted in you at a time when you were most impressionable and you were not sufficiently equipped with the knowledge, experience and tools necessary to effectively reason. So now, use your own line of questioning, become your own speaker and use your own critical thinking to rebuild all that you had previously thought was true about art (or life in general). Create from scratch a foundation that is all your own. Because, this is what reality truly is. Reality is "your reality" based on your own reasoning and based on your own constructs, no one else's.

Become aware of any conditioning done and how it may have impacted one's self-expression. By becoming aware of one's own conditioning one then begins to develop a philosophical foundation built (or is building) on internal self-examination and self-questioning. This foundation is evolves from a natural law and not laws or norms that are man-made. You'll see that in this realm there is no right or wrong. There is only you. There are only your answers to your own questions. There is only your way of doing, in the same sense, it can only be done by you. But to get there, one must dispel the paradigms of right and wrong and good or bad.

The funny thing about becoming proficient in art, is that what is needed to do it has always been there to begin with.  It is up to you to find it again. No one can teach you your art and no one can teach you about doing your hard work of realizing self. All the speaker can do is help you become more aware, to help you undo what has been done and to help show you the state of mind used in achieving it.