Refuelling my soul

In one of my favourite books of all time, Julia Cameron’s ‘The Artist’s Way’, she encourages her readers - those looking for creative courage - to make a regular commitment to artist’s dates and gallery visits to ‘refill the well’. As we know, you can’t pour from an empty cup, nor create from an empty well. My warning lights are on – I need to get refuelled!

Lockdown-life has led to access to art exhibitions through a screen, at the touch of a button. It gives us a sense of art as a commodity – reduced to a screen shot. It becomes a reproduction, a poor substitute for real-life viewing. Anyone who says that viewing art is just about what you see is mistaken. The experience of viewing art in a gallery is multi-sensory. There is a complete emersion – a connection between you and it. There is a shared connection with those who are with you, experiencing the art at the same moment in time. The soul gets filled with the emotional resonance of the colour, texture and narrative. I have missed visiting galleries, greatly. They are my church, my space to find solace, inspiration and motivation.