Life as a Constant Flux of Color

Apart from the innate power of art to enhance our concentration on the here and now and our ability to use our senses, watercolor in particular teaches us four definite lessons. First, it shows us that we have only partial control over most occurrences in our lives. No matter how much we plan things ahead and try to exert control over our future, the flow of life will take us into the least expected direction. As the saying goes "worrying about the future is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing a bubble gum." Second, beauty lies in the imperfections. Third, blank space, emptiness, and lack of color possess the power to create reality. In other words, one should get used to and learn to find comfort in nothingness and absence of meaning. We need to cease trying to make sense of the world as the search for meaning of both the physical world of nature and the spiritual world impedes our experience of these same realities. Fourth, too much focus on the details spoils the authenticity of living. By getting caught up in the smallness of our fixations, we fail to move on with the pace of life, thus missing to experience the unfolding of events. 

The beginning of getting to know watercolor and becoming intimate with it is marked by play. First we explore the interplay between water, paint, and paper. For the effect cannot be explained by analyzing the colors or "dissecting" the paint as a symphony cannot be explained by an analysis of the notes. It just happens and sometimes what is planned to be a matter of choice turns out to be a matter of chance. The key is to go straight ahead with the movement of water and color and get used to its unpredictable nature. We need to join in and play, dance, sing along this 'performance' called life. 

Being raised in cultures and families whose values are deeply rooted in perfection, we tend to lose an adequate perception of what counts when we strive for a fulfilling life. For life is a flowing process and change is its necessary part. As J. Rober Oppenheimer once pointed out "live always at the 'edge of mystery' - the boundary of the unknown". We need to recognize that part of life is a mystery and these essential mysteries limit our control, planning, and calculations of events. Resisting the unknown is precisely what creates a conflict within us. Absorbing the insecurity just as the paper absorbs the paint is the essence of easing this conflict. As artists, though, not only that we learn to live with it but we also get the opportunity to invite people into the unknown, unforeseen territories, to get them out in the depths of the unfamiliar.

That is precisely why the recently brought back to life coloring books are so dangerous. Because they teach us how to be afraid to go outside the lines, how to limit ourselves, and how to see things in just one way or another. They simply castrate our imagination and free interpretation.

It does take quite of an effort, expense of inner peacefulness and a bit of frustration to learn the art of letting go and letting flow - out of the lines, out of the norms, in all possible directions. We have become obsessed with rendering of the world as it appears to the human eye. At first, every color of the painting, diverted from the real representation, makes us feel uneasy and insecure. Our mind has a natural tendency towards certainty, security, and arrogance. We question our conceptions of beauty, of what represents a good artistic work; we are in doubt of our own evaluation until we learn to let go of our fear to "mess up" things or make them look unrealistic, unlike the messed up priorities of our lives we feel rather comfortable about. Insecurity is one of the major sources of anxiety which in turn produces frustration and deprives us of inner and outer peace. To understand that there is no security, however, is far more than to agree with the theory that all things change. Art and watercolor can gradually help us become comfortable with imperfections, random flaws and irregularities - all of which happen to be deeply rooted and constantly found in nature. First we learn by letting paint flow outside of the lines, by letting it mix unexpectedly with a neighboring color.  We see for ourselves that this uncontrolled method not only preserves the essence of the representation but it also heightens its beauty for the mere reason of being organic and natural.

As mentioned in the introduction, one of the lessons watercolor teaches us is the ability to have faith in the lack of color. The opportunity of using white space to construct 'reality' is equivalent to the ability to cease searching for meaning of it all. Absence of meaning frightens us because there is no secure foundation to step on. The more we progress in the modern life of consumerism, the more we are fed with illusionary desires, the less we feel comfortable in having our intuition, versus our intellect, dictate the course of our life. Our social conditioning teaches us that loneliness, emptiness, meaninglessness are contemporary taboos that we have to suppress at all cost. Not only that but sleep, passivity, rest, idleness, laziness are seen as human vices rather than as sources of invention disregarding the fact that doing nothing is an art itself. 

Nothing is seen as more futile than emptiness unless we come to understand how our brain works. In reality, the state of being awake creates toxic products in our brain. Sleep does more than just allowing our brain to wash away these poisons. It is a vital part of the memory and learning process - it erases less important parts of our memory, consolidates the important ones, strenghtens areas we need/want to remember, helps other areas of our brain start "talking" to one another. For we need to be aware that all our best ideas come to us when thinking stops. And if ideas are something and lack of thinking is nothing, then we cannot have something without nothing. And if we are to draw an analogy from science, with no outer space, considered nothing, we wouldn't have any solid matter and we wouldn't ever know where the solid ends. 

In our context of art, it is only through the background (nothing) that we come to see the figure on the front. It is the background that shows the outline of the object; that manifests the object. It would be difficult to see that object if there were no contrasting background.    

Western men has a peculiar passion for meaning-making and logic. Paradoxically, however, we find life meaningful only after we see that it has no purpose. As the medieval Persian sage, Rumi, says in one of his poems "Praise to the emptiness that blanks our existence."