Excerpts from Conversations With the Muse:
The Art Journal As Inner Guide
by Susan Cornelis

The Practice

The Muse is the supernatural wisdom we harness when we engage in art making. The ancients knew this power and never questioned that they were artists who could connect with divine sources through their art. We are no different if we can learn to see our lives as opportunities to exercise our innate power of creation.

The concept of a muse as a guiding spirit or a source of inspiration is a familiar one. It is that quality in ourselves that becomes elusive when we are struggling to keep up with life events and feel creatively blocked.
The Muse in music, in amusement (play), and in musings (contemplations) gives us access to this creative energy. If we play music, while making playful art, which we then contemplate by writing, we open the door for the Muse to enter and give us access to the infinite possibilities of her divine nature.

The playful practice of art journaling through spontaneous painting, drawing, collage and written word gives powerful and immediate access to the symbolic language of the soul.

Play is a challenging concept for the serious adult within us who suspects that it is a waste of valuable time. But it's not difficult for most of us to identify for a moment with the mind of a pre-schooler who lives entirely in the present moment. Colored paints beckon irresistibly. White paper is an open invitation to play. Every part of the body wants to get involved.

To enter the space of creative playfulness, gently let go of any mental urgency which has been driving you. A few moments of a meditation practice, such as focusing your mind on your breathing, can help settle you
into a state that is receptive to the inner voice. Quiet instrumental music like native flute, tamboura or temple bells can help to tune your whole being to a receptive frequency. Moving to expressive music can have a similar effect of emptying the mind.

As your thoughts lose their grip, you may sense a kind of inner movement or see a shape or color. Without questioning it or trying to make conscious sense of it, reach for whatever color or mark maker that first attracts you, and go to your paper. As you begin, have the awareness that you are translating inner sensations into visible ones on the paper. Your focus may shift from your physical sensations to your emotions, or to your mental imaginings as they arise in the present moment.

Everything is now possible. The censor has been evicted. A delicious freedom is yours as you give your entire attention to the colors and shapes that are appearing on the page.

As you continue to play, sometimes a recognizable image pops up. Other times, nothing comes to mind, but you continue to paint and draw, adding ink, watercolor, or acrylic paints, going with your natural attraction to certain media. Allow the inner creator to balance, decorate, and elaborate what you are doing.

You may come to a natural stopping point in your initial play. Before you is an abstract shape or shapes. What now? It is not necessary to see some recognizable form.

Neither is it necessary that you know how to draw. You may want to add collage at this point to further stimulate the metaphoric mind. Look through magazines, old calendars, maps, printed music, stamps, art papers, text in advertisements. You are using your instincts and looking for some kind of match to your piece, either by color or free association. Quickly pick out more pieces than you can use, and start cutting them out.

You will feel that you're making progress, and your confidence will build. Move the pieces around on the surface of your paper until they find a place and glue them on. Continue to paint and find ways to integrate the collage elements into the design that is naturally arising.

If you begin to hear your judging, impatient, bored mind speaking, take a pause. Otherwise it takes over and imposes its own complex agenda, and nothing new gets revealed. Stand up and walk around. Come back and let the image that has been created speak for itself in the language of symbol. Its message is often breathtakingly simple: a metaphor for a feeling of being overwhelmed, a larger perspective on some confusing personal issue, a flash of wisdom far beyond your usual scope, a sense of peace coming from a vast well of consciousness.

Adding words to the page:

As you are working with the art materials, the inner voice may take the form of words as well. Have a separate notebook handy to capture those words while you return to the art process. When the art has come to a point of almost completion, it can be mined for more meaning by doing a free write.

Focusing on the art piece in front of you, write for five minutes on whatever comes to mind. Keep your pen moving on the paper to receive whatever comes, accepting all of it, sense and nonsense. Tell yourself that this writing is totally private unless you want to share it. Write what you see, feel, or imagine about your art.

You may want to tell the story implied in the piece, adding material that is not yet in it, allowing yourself to go off in a new direction. You may choose to give any figures or shapes in it a voice. Converse with them and ask questions. Write the dialogue.

When you're finished writing, you may go back and highlight your favorite parts and add an encapsulated version to your art by drawing, painting, calligraphing, stamping, stenciling or gluing typed words on the paper. Alternately you may put the writing portion on the back of the paper, adding to it as new discoveries are made.

The final step in your conversation with the Muse is to give thanks for what has been revealed. An offering of gratitude ensures that the process can be repeated with success another time. When and where will you meet again? Can you commit to being on time? These are dates you can't afford to miss.