Painting with the Moon
Hello fellow artistic souls!
I am launching this blog in a month that began with the new moon coinciding with a total solar eclipse. This phenomenon created the so-called “ring of fire eclipse”—isn’t it beautiful when the stars align? Hopefully this timing gives my blog an extra boost of cosmic oomph!
And that’s really what this blog Painting with the Moon is about:
Aligning a mindful art practice with the phases of the moon offers energy and pacing to build creative momentum and to focus my intentions as I create.
Whether you feel deeply connected to the moon or not, aligning tasks with any kind of planned phases over the course of a month allows for a better balance of short- and long-term goals. And maybe that seems obvious, but I need a time management strategy that helps me keep long-term goals front of mind. But not only that, because—like many neurodivergent folx—I have an interest-based brain & nervous system, I need strategies that I feel deeply connected to, that feel authentic and purposeful to me.
One of the most devastating consequences of being part of the “lost generation” of undiagnosed ADHD women is the cost of “masking” neurodivergence. I’ve been successful in my career, especially in instances where I can drawn on my particular gifts in language and creativity (I am what is called 2e or “twice exceptional” meaning both intellectually gifted and neurodivergent). But, in all of the effort it takes to mask, it is too easy for my dreams, particularly personal and artistic goals to be pushed aside.
Moon phases allow for a cyclical pattern that is more organic for the way my brain works, providing touchstones on important days (new moon, first quarter, full moon, second quarter) when I check in with my “big picture” vision and intentions.
Since this blog is launching during the waxing phase of the moon, I’ve written up 9 of my favorite New Moon art practices. These practices specifically relate to the energy of the new and waxing moon, which is best for planning, launching new ideas, and discarding what no longer serves you as we build toward the full moon.
1.Decide What’s Finished
How do you know when a work of art is finished? Sometimes you just decide: it’s finished. This particular skill has been a learning process for me because I love to work with media where less is more (watercolor and sumi ink, for instance), and when overworked this can mean that the painting begins to lose the spontaneity of the gesture.
I can’t take credit for this idea of simply deciding a work is done (though I’m sure it is one that all artists learn in their own time). I studied with the poet Michael Collier during my MFA and took a wonderful seminar where we worked through strict poetic forms and meter—another medium that can easily feel overworked if you continue to tweak and tinker with it. In response to a question about the “doneness” of a particular poem, Michael said the poet could just simply:
Decide that it’s done and
fix it in the next poem.
Michael Collier
What a simple and revolutionary concept! One that rings so true to the creative cycle. We are always working out the same problem in the next work, the next poem, the next painting—this is what it is to be an artistic soul in the world.
It is a process that’s never quite finished, one that expands beyond the bounds of a finite, individual work.
2. Envision and launch new projects
The new moon is a perfect time for launching something new so that you have the momentum of the waxing moon to push it into being.
Art Journal
One of my favorite strategies for envisioning new works is the preparatory study. Depending on the intended size of the new work, a study might be a miniature, a thumbnail, a sketch, or a series of art journal entries or storyboards that allow you to literally “vision” the new work.
3. Learn or study a new skill
The beginning of the lunar month is a good time to try out new things. Maybe you’ve been wanting to try out a new tool, medium, or technique. A new skill or medium can open up a new avenue for creative expression and you might surprise yourself!
Follow your curiosity!
4. Share your work outside your usual circles
As with learning new skills that we haven’t already mastered, we grow when we step outside of our comfort zone. For so many of us, our art comes from the truest part of ourselves and this is frequently also the most vulnerable part. So it does feel risky. However, the reward of sharing is community—if we don’t share, we don’t find our community and that can be very lonely indeed. Check out this article in The Numinous about how sensitive types like myself can share and find community without feeling too vulnerable.
5. Take inspiration from nature
Nature’s art is pattern
The new moon is a great time to reconnect with the earth and to really feel our groundedness. This might mean painting en plein air, bringing a bit of nature in to create a still life, doing a nature study, using patterns found in nature, or incorporating natural pigments and organic materials into your artwork.
6. Discard what doesn’t serve you
In experiencing the new moon as a new beginning, it can be freeing to discard the things that no longer serve you. If you have limiting beliefs about yourself or your abilities as an artist, or even habits that are getting in the way of your practice, it might help to write those down on a small piece of paper and (safely) burn them in a small ritual. A yellow or orange candle will help you to symbolically reclaim your creativity. Or you may have actual material things that need to be discarded, like clutter in your home or studio or old supplies and failed works. If it would lighten your space to be rid of these, you can be grateful for the lessons learned and let them go.
7. Clean and organize your studio space
While you are discarding what no longer serves you, it is a good time to do a thorough cleansing of your workspace and get your tools and materials organized so you can easily access them when inspiration strikes. If you don’t have a designated studio space, organize your materials in a tote or bin so that you can quickly grab everything you need and start creating. This one is an ongoing process for me. Check out this article on decluttering specifically in studio spaces.
8. Schedule your studio time during your best time
Another ADHD hack: it’s easy to let the most immediate and pressing things take over the space and time we need for creativity. When I was writing my doctoral dissertation on modern and contemporary ekphrastic poetry (poems that take visual art as inspiration and subject matter), I read some advice in the book The Clockwork Muse {commissions earned} that I will never forget about planning out tasks. The concept is simple.
A Time vs. B Time
A TIME
Do your highest work during your best time.
B TIME
Do the other stuff at other times.
BE SELFISH ABOUT YOUR MOST CREATIVE TIME.
Protect it at all costs!
If you are a morning person, you give your mornings to creativity (art, writing, creative envisioning) and save the other stuff (emails, “busy” work, errands) for the afternoon when you are still effective but perhaps not at your most brilliant. This sounds simple, but it’s not always easy. Being mindful of really keeping your best time for creativity as sacred time can help.
9. Share your wisdom with a curious outsider
Have you ever shown someone around your home or workplace and been surprised when they get excited by something that you don’t even notice any more? When I started as a museum editor, I was so delighted to see the tiny, dollhouse-sized replica of the gallery spaces and the miniature, mock artworks that the curators would use to plan the layouts of exhibitions.
For the registrar and curators this “dollhouse” was merely a practical tool used to envision how visitors would move through the exhibition space and engage with the art, but for me, seeing this for the first time, it held such resonance—to me it was an object full of delight, wonder, and imaginative possibility. My excitement surprised my colleagues since this was such a normal part of their work. The gallery “dollhouse” probably felt pretty old hat to them. However, seeing my curiosity, they started sharing some fascinating insider knowledge with me.
Sharing what you know well, your expertise, can be so rewarding. When you help someone master a new skill or give them access to a new tool, your mastery of it gets a little boost of inspiration because you see it through their eyes! Even behavioral scientists have studied the dynamic relationship between curiosity and creativity.
I hope you’ll try one or more of these art practices as the moon waxes toward full, and I hope you find them useful. Follow me on Instagram (@wildmooncraft) and let me know what you’re making!
