27 My Octopus Teacher

I’m fourteen paintings into what Hilma has told me is the first series. Today  I just sat down and began moving my hand without a thought about what might happen or what I wanted to create. The movements of my hand feel intuitive.

Where I was more controlled was in the application of the color.

I did lighter washes, blocks of color.

A lighter wash helps to reveal depth.

Darker color sometimes cover over more intricate details.

A darker lines around the edge of something helps create depth and the illusion of shadows.

It strikes me that nothing is really a paradox. It’s more like a figure eight: One thing feeds and give rise the other. If you were only see the extremes, you might say that they’re in opposition. But really, they’re constantly flowing toward their opposite.

The name of this painting, My Octopus Teacher, comes to me, perhaps because I’ve been meaning to watch the documentary on Netflix.

I decided to look up possible spiritual meanings for Octopus and come across this:

“In nature, Octopus prefers to move along the bottom of their realm. They frequently move, shifting with the water’s movements. In this Octopus teaches us how to work with whatever is “in motion” vs. fighting against it.” (whatismyspiritanimal.com)

Like the movements of my hand, and, like my painting process as of late, they go with the flow., When I let myself drift along in a kind of murky waking dream, steeped in colors and lines that, like a kaleidoscope, keep revealing new patterns of meaning.

I also know that Octopi have an amazing ability to see what is in their surroundings, to notice patterns of light and colors and to perfectly blend themselves into their surroundings. Here’s an incredible demonstration of this: David Gallo, Underwater Astonishments

In my life I have often felt separate and separated from other people and though this has not felt comfortable, I have learned some useful things from not fitting in.

But if this painting were a dream, and this Octopus were my teacher, perhaps the message is, that there is much to be learned and gained from the empathy it takes to truly shape-shift.