Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Introverts or Extroverts?

I had an unfortunate conversation with my husband the other night. As I have been concentrating my efforts in painting as much as possible lately, I have neglected to nurture our relationship by excluding him in my world without realizing it. Have you ever unintentionally (or perhaps intentionally) done this? Or have you ever been the recipient of this behavior?

Artists generally work independently and when we are in the flow of generating an idea, our surroundings melt away and all that's left is us and our materials. Interruptions and distractions can lead us into despair if we can't get out our ideas. This faculty of the creative experience I call "input" which is really introverted. This can be detrimental to our relationships with our families and friends if we're not balancing our work with our life.

We are also, in a way, extroverts as well. Artists use art to communicate, so even if we're not saying a word our art shows the world what we're thinking (the finished product is the output). But since not all people can, or like to, communicate with output, we need to nurture our relationships in other creative ways. It's not always about us. We need to be open-minded enough to relate to others in ways we're not familiar with. So what would happen if we tried including others around us with the input? Would it hinder our ability to express our ideas in any way? I don't know - I haven't tried it yet but...I think feedback, discussions, and experiences all strengthen our creativity and by including others in our world, this may help sharpen our swords.

1 Corinthians 12:12 says "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ." Letting ourselves get wrapped up in our own world separates the unit. Husband and wife become two when they were married as one.

This blog started out quite introverted. I shared my new works and gave you tidbits about what I was up to but now, it has become quite extroverted. My experiences and conversations with others has allowed me to talk about what a lot of artists (and perhaps non artists as well) go through.
Welcome to my world.

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