Whenever I am painting or drawing I try to keep my judging mind out of the picture as much as possible and just allow whatever wants to show up to just be there. And what that means is that I sometimes don’t LIKE what I’ve drawn or painted very much. I develop very negative opinions about how it turned out. I might think something is not very pretty or it disturbs me or makes me feel uncomfortable in some way or another. A big part of the intuitive painting process is trying to practice something I call “Radical Self Acceptance” which means accepting everything that comes out of me as worthy and deserving of respect no matter what other feelings I may have about it. Sometimes this is easier to do than others. This little drawing that I made with colored pencils definitely had a life of it’s own. I was really engaged as I created it and enjoyed myself immensely WHILE I was drawing it. The problems started once I finished. It was at that point that the critic came in with all KINDS of messages about how UGLY this image was. I didn’t like her hair or her teeth […]