If there’s one thing I’ve learned by making art seriously for the last five years, it’s that not everything has to make sense or reveal revolutionary truth.

Art can be completely abstract and still evoke emotion. Art can be totally spontaneous and nonsensical, like when we dream.

I often find I need to remind myself of this when I’m making work: It doesn’t have to make sense!

Your work doesn't have to make sense or be real, it just has to be believable.

Your task is to make convincing work, even if it’s absurdly fictitious. Unless there are rules that you are breaking on purpose. The key here being on purpose.

There will no doubt be times you make a painting and it won’t make sense to you till much later. That is not uncommon. You can learn to let your art tell you what’s happening inside you on a subconscious level. This takes the patience that can only be taught with time invested into a regular practice.

You can use your art to regulate your emotions, expel your pent up energy onto the canvas and figure out what was bothering you later. Don’t let your emotions control you, let them guide your hand. Sometimes this means making ugly art. Accepting that not everything you make will be a masterpiece is just as much a part of the journey as anything else.

Let your art practice teach you about patience.

Of course, to have a deep cathartic meaning in your artwork is ideal, but you cannot shoehorn in a story that doesn’t fit.

Consider the following powerful quote by Buddha:

“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” –Buddha

You cannot hide your truth, it seeps out anyway, intentional or not.

This means that even when you don’t think your work has meaning, it does. Maybe it is too early for you to tell, but just like the merciless journey chasing your “artistic style”, meaning might only make sense in retrospect, or as a whole.

Which brings me to the first bit of advice: Take a step back from your work. Art is a marathon, not a sprint. You’ll be surprised what can be revealed when you give yourself some space from a piece and come back later with an air of objectivity.

“An artist’s duty is to reflect the times” –Nina Simone

It is short-sighted to say that the only way to read a book about reality is through non-fiction. Fiction novels can be just as reflective of the times than any non-fiction or autobiography.

Consider 1984! Satirical and still a powerful and revolutionary description about disproportionate power in politics.

An autobiography after all is just a story told from the subjective perspective of a single person.

The bible is a collection of stories told by people many decades after the death of Jesus.

Books on science are written, debunked and re-written.

Fiction can be used as a vehicle for disguising truth. It has the ability to parade the truth around in plain sight, dressed up as fictional characters in a made up world.

This is how letting your work be what it is can serve you. It can show you your deeper truths in some cryptic symbology that takes time to decipher.

Maybe the fact that you love zombies and so you paint them over and over says more about you than you realise. Yes, they are just zombies, but armed with the passion you might have for zombies, they represent a part of you that is unique to you. YOUR passion and commitment to depicting zombies.

It’s impossible not to reveal something about yourself and your time on this planet.

So keep playing with what feels right, the process is very intuitive.

‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco’ by Shane Izykowski (who doesn’t always just paint zombies)

Cultivate Meaning by Writing It Down

If you're struggling to find meaning in your work, try starting a diary and writing about your past and present. Dream about your future. Take time to examine your life. Meditate. Perhaps most importantly of all: consistently make art.

Sometimes I paint the Aurora Borealis because it is something I’ve always wanted to see, but haven’t had the opportunity yet. I paint it because I want to manifest it. There’s no real deep meaning in that, I just like to meditate on the IDEA of seeing them for the first time.

Unless you want to see the northern lights as a symbol of the transcendent, a profound phenomenon which can transport us to another world. The ethereal lights dancing reminding us of the immeasurable beauty of nature, and our limited time on this planet.

This is what I mean.

Everything can mean anything to anyone. Don’t try to control it. Let it come naturally.

When we create, we tap into a part of ourselves that isn’t expressed so easily in words. This is why art therapy is proving to be revolutionary, and gaining more and more traction in the field of psychotherapy. This is why I have personally found so much healing in my own art practice.

“Where words fail, music speaks” –Hans Christian Andersen

Photo of the main stage at Rainbow Serpent Festival 2019 by Spinferno

Don’t underestimate the power of beauty. Aesthetics for the sake of aesthetics. Beauty is a driving force in our experience of life. Witnessing what humans are capable of doing in the name of beauty is unfathomable.

I sat on a grassy hill, at midnight on Saturday night at Rainbow Serpent Festival, and watched the lights dance across the sky, flames shooting two stories into the air.

The most insane production of lights and music all coming together in what could only be described as a symphony of sound, colour and light. Ten thousand people dancing, laughing, and crying.

It is overwhelming to me that we evolved from single cell organisms to accomplish so much.

Why?

Because we really, really like pretty lights.

We can connect to each other through a single focus on this one shared experience, and it is truly an experience of the divine.

This is what makes me love humans so much, in spite of all the pain and suffering in the world. I think this is what makes us great.

We band together to build monumental structures, dedicated to beauty. The UK will distribute approximately $750 USD on the arts in a single year. France’s budget for the arts in 2019 was more than $4 billion USD.

“You are the product of this immense evolutionary history, and your ancestors were an unbroken string of successful reproducers going back three and a half billion years. Every single one of your ancestors successfully reproduced. It’s mind boggling. The chances against that are billions to one and here you are, three and a half billions years of success.” Jordan Peterson

To conclude: don’t stress about it. Don’t underestimate creating beauty, your version of beauty. Let your art be what it is. Let your subconscious guide your hand.

A lot of this kind of thing comes with years of consistent practice anyway, so just relax and keep making art, keep honing your craft.

I'd love to know what creative goals or deeper meanings and intentions you have for your art. I find writing them down is one step closer to achieving them

(you don’t have to sign in or anything to like/ comment on this post)

Love Ash

Written by Ash Darq, with special thanks to my editor Visaic

If you’d like to support me further with a monthly subscription, please check out my Patreon

How to Find Deeper Meaning in your Art

Cultivate Meaning by Writing It Down