I am feeling unsure and somewhat frustrated.
There is a white space on my painting that should be filled with color.
I think.
Honestly, I got stuck there – for such a long time – and finally, my perspective shifted, and I understand.
16 years ago, I started on my journey creating and working with my Wise Woman’s Compass. It has become an intricate part of my personal life journey, and from time to time I teach it as a course. Ever so often, it needs a reconfiguration to stay current, expansive and transformative. Sometimes I understand the changes right away, at other times it can take months or even years to get it.
A couple of years ago, I started a painting to reflect some new aspects about the Compass that needed integration. I collaged and painted on a large wooden canvas. All was coming along, until I had to paint the center. I tried different approaches and colors. Transparent and solid, speckled and swished, dotted and sponged. Every time I filled the center, it was not right, not even close. In frustration, I painted it over with white, again and again. As soon as it was white again, I was at peace.
Ever so often, I would get the urge again to complete the center. I wanted to finish the project and hang it up in my home. While I had lots of ideas for other projects, I had none for this. The center remained white.
During a discussion with an amazing artist friend of mine, I finally understood and what a relief that was!
Each project has a different purpose and, if we are willing to listen, will ask for different things. My painting is a representation of an inner journey I am taking and inviting others to be on. For me, it’s clear that it is a lifelong process.
By filling in every aspect of this painting, I am closing down that particular journey. The image is finished, the transformation complete. No more movement into the unknown and undefined, but rather a settling into what I know now and staying there. As time passes, there will be a movement backwards into memories of how I felt when I was working on this project, what I learned and experienced. Instead of possibility, it becomes a remembrance.
Here is the nugget:
Some things in our lives have to stay open, remain unfinished, left ‘white’.
This white space is actually a space of possibility, where anything can happen, where your thinking is not directed, your experience not set. This is where magic, imagination and creativity live.
White space pulls you into the future, into questions, observations, ongoing insights, transformation and possibilities.
In Feng Shui this is commonly referred to as “other”. When looking at anything in life, there is always that question: “What else is possible?”
Have you left room in your life for that?
My painting is complete in its incompletion. Looking at it allows me to keep dreaming and connecting, to stay open and curious about what else is possible.
Where are your white spaces?
Do you have some in your schedule, in your cooking, in your relationships, in your work and play, in your points of view?
Is there room for surprises and ‘aha’ moments?
Is there room for magic?
Where would you love to create some more?
Let me know in your comments below what you are discovering.
If you find some challenges in creating this change in perspective for yourself, let’s have a conversation and explore how I can support you in making this happen. Go here to book a free 30-Minute Discovery Call with me.