Barbara Diane Barry - Painting Your Way Out of a Corner: The Art of Getting Unstuck

Praise for Painting Your Way Out of a Corner

When you have a thought, the value of that thought depends upon how you interact with it. Barbara Diane Barry the author of Painting Your Way Out of a Corner discovered that her brain was censoring images and ideas so quickly as irrelevant or unrelated that her potential for creative ideas and solutions was crippled. By going through the motions of painting in her journal for six years she learned to focus on the process of painting rather than the outcome. The more times she went through the motions of painting in her journal the more she found herself interacting with her thoughts. This interaction primed her to explore creative new ways of thinking, living and reinventing herself.

There are two ways of spreading light... to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it. This book combines both. When you paint in your journal, you are the candle that creates the light that shines on your inner thoughts and fears, and the journal reflects back this light to make you aware of the creative choices you must make to navigate through the difficulties of life. This discipline of painting in a journal will allow you to continually reinvent yourself and to learn how to embrace your hidden inner resources not only for art but for the challenges of life itself.

M ICHAEL M ICHALKO, AUTHOR OF Thinkertoys AND Creative Thinkering

Barbara Barry has developed an amazing method for opening the creative flow for anyone who wants to dip in and draw from deep water. Writers, poets, painters, chefs, designers, or anyone who wants to work from a creative center can let her be the guide.

L INDA L EONARD, P H. D ., AUTHOR OF The Wounded Woman AND The Call to Create

Some of my most profound and powerful breakthroughs have happened with paintbrush in hand, standing in front of my own wild, intuitive paintings. Thats why Im so delighted that creative souls now have Barbara Diane Barrys Painting Your Way Out of a Corner to turn to for guidance on their own self-discovery journeys. Barbaras insightful exercises will help you quiet the inner critic, ignite your intuition, and rev up your innovative problem-solving abilities. So pick up your paintbrush and give yourself full permission to play!

J ENNIFER L EE, AUTHOR OF The Right-Brain Business Plan

Barbara Barry provides a practical and workable solution to the most daunting problem for all those who yearn for self-expression through art: How to get started. Her prescriptions for painting as journal-keeping and her imaginative exercises show her skills as a teacher and her respectful empathy for the beginners fear of the blank page and the inner critic. So often, just getting going is the problem. This book will make you want to jump in.

B ETTY E DWARDS, AUTHOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Drawing on the Right Side of the Brian

Much more than just a wonderful guide for learning to paint, this book is a glorious gift to anyone who yearns for a more creative life!

M ICHAEL J G ELB, AUTHOR OF How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci

I love this book! It supports readers exploring themselves in a symbolic way that results in true transformation. I am already using it with myself and my clients.

MJ R YAN, AUTHOR OF This Year I Will...

JEREMY P. TARCHER/PENGUIN

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Copyright 2013 by Barbara Diane Barry

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Barry, Barbara Diane.

Painting your way out of a corner : the art of getting unstuck / Barbara Diane Barry.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-101-61003-9

1. PaintingTechnique. 2. PaintingPsychological aspects. 3. Artists block. I. Title.

ND1500. B225 2014 2013030407

751.4dc23

Version_1

To Katherine, who never stopped believing in me

CONTENTS

It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work and that when we no longer know which way to go we have begun our real journey.

W ENDELL B ERRY

INTRODUCTION

The Genesis of Journal Painting

It was at the midpoint in my career as an artist and art educator when I completely stopped painting and drawing for a time. It was after a New Jersey womens art collective rejected my membership application because they felt my work did not show a unified style. I was crushed and couldnt even look at a brush. I wondered if perhaps the womens collective was right. It seemed that I just didnt know how to go deeper into my work. I had always been fearful of making mistakes. I would reach a certain level and then back away.

This wasnt the first time in my life when Id felt stuck. In fact, it had been something of a recurring theme for me for quite some time. At the age of five, I contracted poliovirus, which caused the paralysis of my left hand. That is my first memory of feeling stuck. Not only was I unable to tie my shoes or cut my meat like most kids, for a long time I couldnt even open my hand. I see now how this became a metaphor for me later in life when I couldnt move ahead with a decision or get past some emotional upheaval. As I grew up and became an adult, this pattern played out over and over whenever I approached any task I anticipated as huge. I couldnt get myself to move.

In my artwork I often did not trust the worth of the ideas or images that came to me. I would feel myself freeze up, unable to risk anything. At these moments I imagined myself to be hollow inside, just a big, blank page. When and if some vision arose, I found myself paralyzed with indecision, unable to move forward or backward. If I was working in oils, Id start scraping away at the images and color, effectively erasing or destroying what Id done.

The amazing paradox was that even with this kind of self-doubt, I sensed that I had so much more inside me. In my fantasies I wasnt tied to an accurate representation of what I saw or some artistic ideal. Instead I was painting new forms with bold colors and strokes. In truth, I had more to say artistically but did not know how to set it free or even understand what the it might be. I was very frustrated and in despair much of the time, and, as I was to discover, this was an immense drain of valuable energy.