Description

Original Artwork By Michael Grealy ( Founder / Owner- iNVISeDGE )

The written piece below was done on 3rd October, 2021– for the FIRST piece of artwork I shared in iNVISeDGE- the artwork piece about not hoping for an outcome.

Because of ongoing mental-health issues, during my most recent hospital admission in October 2020, hospital staff suggested I start doing my own artwork instead of just representing everyone else’s.

The funny thing is I have never considered myself an artist because I’m not very good at drawing or painting. (I got a B for art at high school even though it was the main subject I tried really hard at. It’s “interesting” how high school “pigeon-holes” us for a good part of our lives.) I am a writer, first and foremost but I don’t consider writing an art. Most of my “best writing” is done at about 2 o’clock in the morning. I “get woken up” in the middle of the night and there’s something that stops me from going back to sleep until I write what’s in my head. Virtually all the “creative writing” that has ever come out of me, has been done in the middle of the night when I should be asleep (thousands of pages have been born this way). Writing sometimes just gushes out of me like a torrent (when it’s supposed to). There have been some nights I’ve written 20 pages in about 3 hours. In the middle of the night it often just falls out of me with no effort at all. So much so that I don’t really consider any of “my” writing, mine. My fingers dance across the keyboard and eventually I just stop, collapse back in bed and go back to sleep.

I digress… I was never creative at all. I struggled for a long time to draw or paint creatively. This is the first piece of art I feel comfortable sharing with people. I think I like the piece of writing that accompanies this more than the piece of artwork itself. (“Instead of hoping for an outcome, pray for the Highest Good for all.”) I seem to have a way with words … or so people keep telling me. This written caption took several weeks to evolve. Every word had to be “just right” before I was ready to sit down and commit to doing this piece of art.

I don’t have any goals in life. I never plan anything and don’t think I ever will. I just “go with the flow”…

But after my most recent hospital admission (at a large public hospital in the outer Brisbane suburbs) in 2020, I made a decision (after I stopped wanting to kill myself every second of every day) to create a piece of artwork each week with felt pens, a pencil and a biro as the only media. I’ve done about 25 pieces of art now. This is the first one I really like so I’ve decided to share it with my iNVISeDGE “family”.

Soon after posting this listing, someone asked me, “why just felt pens, a pencil and a biro?” This idea was born out of procrastination. I kept coming up with excuses for not committing myself to this one piece of artwork. The home I was living in was too small to set up any type of art-space, I didn’t have space to store any art materials or the money to buy them either. (There are so many things I’d like to do with iNVISeDGE and they all require money and time- two precious commodities I never seem to have enough of.) One day in February 2021 I was shopping at Coles and I ambled up the aisle with stationery in it (which I never do). I saw a pack of 20 felt pens and I think they were less than $10. I found myself throwing them in my shopping basket and then after a few more steps I actually put them back on the shelf (!) … Then later went back and got them again. I love my felt pens now (they are one of my most prized possessions). I find myself looking forward to doing my next piece of artwork. It’s therapeutic (this is obviously the main reason the nurses in the mental hospital encouraged me to take up doing it).

UPDATE – 15 November 2021

I have now added a “White-Out” pen (correction fluid pen) to the media I’m using for this first series of “works”. It’s about the same size as a marker pen (so very easy for me to carry around and store). I have a habit of “overdoing” artwork (only because I’m trying so hard for it to be good). To help me surrender this notion that nothing I do is ever good enough, I’m continuing with the parameters I set from the get-go (for this first series). HALF an A4 page of SCRAP paper. Felt pens. Biro. Pencil. And now a “White-Out pen.

The White-Out pen is a very strategic choice. I want to move onto painting on canvases but I’m not ready for that quite yet. I want to continue with the parameters I initially set for myself for this series because they will help me grow as a person and an “artist”. I still don’t really consider myself an artist because I’m still learning HOW TO let go of control, how NOT to set goals and not want (or need) to be perfect at anything.

These artworks look quite primitive and child-like. They’re meant to! I want them to be symbolic. Children draw and paint with symbols all the time. (Cave people did too!) Because I am using only one HALF AN A4 PAGE of SCRAP PAPER (that “rule” did NOT come from any plan I made so I’m sticking with it!), this FORCES ME to be creative, symbolic … and colourful.

All symbols are creative, including the letters of our written language. They are a creative means by which humans developed to convey themselves to other humans (and be understood by others). Symbols (and words) merely point us to the Truth and that is exactly what I want to achieve with this series of art.

I want to inspire others (first and foremost) and I want to do this in a way that is neither “good nor bad”. I want people to look at my artwork and say, “I could do that”. THAT is my goal! I want to encourage others to be creative. It is all too easy to be destructive with others AND (for some of us) to be destructive with ourselves. Be kind to yourself as well as others and if you find that hard, CREATE. Because our ability to be creative is what separates us from other animals. When we are connecting with our creative power, we’re connecting to a higher part of ourselves that is often forgotten in modern life.

I look forward to sharing more pieces of my artwork in iNVISeDGE in the future. Have a great day! :+)

Michael Grealy (3 October 2021). Revised 15 November 2021.

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