Look in the Mirror When Making Art

I was just scrolling through Instagram and seeing all these artists making art very quickly—very pretty—and it made me realize that the goal for me cannot be to finish something and make it pretty. Letting three harmonious colors pour together on a flat surface and react to gravity can make something pretty. Running a textured brush through wet paint can make something beautiful. It’s actually very easy and quick to make something pretty. Three different strokes of paint on a canvas can do it.

But when the “pretty” comes that easily, it makes me wonder—what am I really after when I create?

So what is my goal in making art? Why have I been attracted to it? I think I can safely say that I’ve been drawn to art because it offers a means of self-exploration. Making art itself is a tool—a tool for us to connect more closely with who we really are. What are our preferences? What are our beliefs? How do we approach the world of manifestation? Are we confidently proud? Are we introverted and shy? Do we risk big, bold moves, or are we only comfortable making small, tiny strokes?

There’s so much to learn in making art—so many opportunities for self-reflection. And yet, in today’s world, that slower kind of learning often gets overshadowed. Here in the West, and with this wonderful world of social media, everybody seems to focus on the finishing. Look what I can do. Look what I can do. Most of it is in the effort of Me-ing. How fast can we get there? How many tricks can we pull out of our hat with the scarcity of paint, gravity, and water to make something look finished?

When we think this way, what does it reveal about the artist? If your goal is to finish and show off your work, what does that tell you about you? Perhaps it tells you that you’re always looking for some sort of validation—that you need to be good or you need to be proven. But that’s not the case, is it? Perhaps if you gravitate toward doing something fast, quick, and perfect, you should realize that you’re not really trusting the Spirit within. You’re not really acknowledging that you’re already perfect and beautiful in this moment. Everything else is just an exercise in ego flexing.

The point isn’t to produce quick, pleasing results or to perform for others’ approval—it’s to use art as a mirror, a tool for inner discovery. When we shift from Look what I can do to Look at what I can learn, the creative process becomes an intimate conversation with Spirit. Each brushstroke, pause, and hesitation reveals something about who we are and how we show up in the world. Art stops being about perfection or validation and becomes a practice of presence—of noticing, listening, and trusting that what’s unfolding on the canvas mirrors what’s unfolding within.

In the end, the canvas becomes a mirror—reflecting not what I can do, but who I am becoming through the act of creation.