the reality of trance state

3 October 2019
I’m about to launch my new art venture which in its initial stage involves trance and painting. I am calling it meditative painting but my meditation ability fluctuates from day-to-day.

Having located an old black shawl, I drape that over my head to try to cut out the light better than a silk scarf. I’m sitting cross-legged on my cushion amongst all my painting paraphernalia on a reversed waterproof sheet (to save the carpet a further ink catastrophy), with this found shawl over my head and shamanic drum beats playing loudly through the computer.

I’m alone all day in the house and the neighbours are away, hence the loudness. Today proves the ideal circumstances in which I can paint as freely as I like. Perfect, in fact, because the delivery man arrived with my order of A1 paper at 10am this morning, so I’m all raring.


Just now I gladly launched into a relaxed state with spirit guides and imagery to hand, right where I needed to be and visiting a tribal camp back in the eons of time somewhere, when I remembered I hadn’t prepared paper ready to begin my 'blind' mark-making. I hastily ask all to bear with me and halt a moment so I can grab a sheet of paper, but realise I have to get my inks ready too.

The 3D clock ticks and the spiritual moment passes. The Lower World image I had a hold of [more on shamanic worlds another time] starts to fade: I’m no longer visiting an ancestral tribe engrossed watching their resident ‘artist’ paint a large wooden mask in chalky white clay. I can’t quite recall the shape of it – the grimace of a downturned mouth – like I want to, but I try my best on my 21st Century manufactured, 300gsm, watercolour paper…

And it’s not great. Weird as hell, I’ll give it that. Some sort of mask/creature/bird with odd eyes, however you tilt your head to examine it. Then I do the thing I’m really not supposed to: I overwork it with open eyes, assessing it’s aesthetic appearance. I’m ‘Middle World’ judging it, never a good outcome.


The past week I have struggled with meditation, painting or not. It doesn’t always work when my mind is frazzled or in a flurry. Anxiety can knock the practice right out and the 21st Century life keeps on knocking. Daily routine enables conditioned human thought to flow freely instead: the humdrum shit floats up in our heads that keeps us all fixed in reality and not the sublime spiritual existence I for one would like to be, or at least visit regularly for spiritual sustenance.

Generally, my meditation practice has to be in the evening, preferably quiet and dark with the door closed on the outside world. This is how I am able to summon the correct state. However, this is not conducive to trance painting. Painting at night is not the way to go because half of me wants to chill not get creatively fired up before I go to bed.


The argument could be that Spirit (energy) doesn’t want me to be painting what I experience or any semblance of it. Spirit is not to be exploited but respected. Spirit is not a parlour trick – that was a Victorian form of deception. And Spirit will not stick around the more I dip in and out faffing where my inks are. Quite rightly, it (they) will have better places to be.

In human terms, it is difficult switching between checking email, doing lunch, answering the door to a delivery man, putting out the washing, researching on Google, and getting deep into meditation and entering dark recesses of the imagination. 


Nevertheless, some days the trance painting does happen quickly. Some days I fall right into it, and a striking image forms on the paper in front of me, unintended, unpredicted, unplanned, semi-unconscious.

I may have colours in my head which I choose ahead (to save the faffing part), but other than being physically and practically prepared, the only one focus in my head is on 'falling', on getting to the right state; of loosening my grip on reality and letting go, allowing myself and my imagination to travel up or down, whichever way is necessary at that time. My focus is not on what marks I’m going to make or what kind of image I want to create or portray.


And then, some days it just doesn’t happen. Six or seven creations I’ve done today: willow charcoal with light ink washes, and two larger ink/watercolour pieces. Sadly, I don’t feel one of them fits with the remaining set I have so far listed in my log book.

My disappointment isn’t so much in the artwork results but in my meditative ability – or lack of ability, rather. It’s not happening because my mind has been in frantic mode for a good 10 days. In this state, there’s no pushing at it or pushing it aside, it just is.

Such as it is, I shall clean up, put my paints away, make a cup of tea and schedule a pure meditation session for later.

We have to keep on trying, as we embrace our failures and recognise we can’t produce consistent energy levels, artwork or meditation states on demand. Not only as artists but because we are only human.