Today I’m trying out painting with glue. In great sweeps, the gel spreads across the sheet. Memories of the paintings of van Gogh emerge – these wonderful organic painting structures. The “starry night” pushes itself before my inner eye. My mind screams, “First research and look at the painting before you repaint that!” Creativity has no desire for perfectionism and takes the reins. Starting with the fields first before getting down to the nitty gritty. Fast forward. Green barley. No idea what good old van Gogh had painted – I’m going for waving barley now. Dabbing? Stippling? The brush slips on the glue. Sweeps. And at some point the horizontal figure eight. Feels good.
Then the stars. Yellow, of course. Then the night sky. Darkest blue. In the back corner, reason mumbles to itself: “Wrong order. First the background and then put the stars on top! Now it’s totally complicated and I have to paint around each star and each little star!” Creativity knows, however, that it wants the yellow on the snow-white paper to get the glow of the bright color. Reason relents and cranks up the Perseverance program. Together, they continue.
The stars become a journey of discovery. Do they shine circular or radiant? Reason and creativity are once again at loggerheads and agree on a compromise: The small stars become circular, the big ones are allowed to shine. Creativity then beats reason to the punch when it is not paying enough attention and turns the central star circular as well. And puts the deepest blue of the night sky into the center. Reason is flabbergasted and at the same time completely thrilled when it recognizes a concept in this: The central star has recognized the principle of the small, quiet stars and adopted it for itself. In this organic form a balance can unfold much better and one can thus shine in peace and serenity. It is ok, if the other big stars are still struggling a while longer with their hectic “sending out”. They are already flickering quite a bit. Hopefully they’ll catch on at some point and opt for the more natural and resource-saving option.
The landscape is much too big and at this moment I have no idea how to fill it. Never mind. Because the message of the morning has come through. Taking a deep breath.
To the critical authority: Of course, the original looks completely different. And of course, my picture today looks like a child’s drawing in comparison. And that is exactly the point here: About not comparing. It is solely about experiencing the essence of creativity in a concrete way.
The “Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh on the pages of MoMA with brilliant explanatory videos about the painting.
