“We are conditioned to see, and still not “see” what we are seeing.”
Drawing by N. Wait 1991
That is why learning how to draw or paint “from life” is such a vital and excellent exercise in establishing just exactly WHAT we are observing and WHAT we are taking in, which is then regurgitated onto the paper/canvas, after it has passed through our physical/emotional/mental apparatus.
It is the best way I know how to see beyond the brainwashing and remove myself from the trance-state of our so-called reality.
The drawing pictured here was done more than a decade after I began learning how to draw from life. Because once I knew I could draw how things appeared – much as they would in a photograph or to the “normal” eye, I became interested in drawing from my inner eye. Things I sensed I was seeing, because I had realized my emotional body was very much tied into what my physical eyes seemed to be telling me.
The best way I know how to become more real in the (real) world, is to take it in (like a breath), and then release it (like a breath) – in a visible way (like a drawing).
The drawing, regardless of its merit to anyone else and regardless of what it looks like – is a sample of my energy system, the frequencies I am operating on at any given time. And ultimately, it is just information. Feedback from my psyche.
This is true for any work of art that you will ever “see.”
