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An Artist's High
Valerie Atkisson, "Jungle Totem", Watercolor on paper, 12ft x 2 ft, 2008 (detail)
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Valerie Atkisson
Prior to starting ArtBistro, Valerie lived and worked as an artist in New York City for ten years. Her work has been shown at New York galleries and museums and been reviewed in publications such as The New York Times. Valerie taught art for eight years part-time at Grace Church School and most recently at Brigham Young University. She has collaborated on a number of commercial enterprises with composers, designers, writers, photographers, and dancers. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts with her Master of Fine Arts in 1998. ArtBistro Portfolio
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Valerie Atkisson / ArtBistro
October 12, 2009
I took down some posts on ArtBistro about making art under the influence of illegal drugs. We can’t really allow that content on our 13 and up site. A few weeks later I was making some art and it sparked my thinking about making art and “highs”.
What happened? Since becoming the Editor of ArtBistro it has been a challenge to keep up with my art career. A few months ago, an opportunity came to show at a gallery, the Sego Art Center. I was ready to make another large piece and was pretty excited at the opportunity. I’d done some thinking and sketching but nothing had really felt right or crystallized except I knew that it would be watercolor and that I wanted the result to be an organic shape rather than a rectangle. During one of my morning swims, the idea of the piece came to me.
I worked at my studio for several stretches of time and had worked out the format of the piece, a 12-foot tall watercolor. I collected source material for the jungle trees and made a drawing of how they would go up the wall. I made sketches of little “me’s” from acrobatic gymnasts and trapeze artists. I had a life size drawing and transferred it to watercolor paper.
Having done all of that, the pressure was on. I had three large pieces of watercolor paper and I was nervous about messing them up. One “oops” splash and I may have to start over and I did not have time to start over.
I turned on some of my favorite music and got to work. I started painting under layers and ideas of interesting color combinations and blending came to mind. I made bold and quick decisions about what should go where and experimented with how to make these trees interesting and individual. I was having a lot of fun and the watercolors were being completed much more quickly than I anticipated. All of the strokes I made were meaningful, right, and the color choices were having my desired effect. I was surprised and encouraged with the spontaneous ideas that were working out beautifully. I was having so much fun! A few hours flew by and I started to get tired. I quit for the day because I know that when I get tired I make mistakes. It was hard to stop though I was having such a good time.
During the drive home from my studio I felt mixture of surprise, satisfaction, pride in my work, euphoria, energy, optimism, and that anything I would do at that moment would turn to gold. I went home and I could not go to sleep. I can always go to sleep, but I was so energized and excited about the work that I’d just done, I couldn’t. It was adrenaline. It was then that I realized that I was on an “Artist High”.
I remembered that this has happened to me before on other projects. I even, in some cases, remember when and at what point I was at in the project when I felt the same feelings. This “high” feeling can be a very powerful motivator for artists especially amongst the difficulties of a creative career.
Thurmond
about 1 year ago
506 comments
Nothing like it. I had the opportunity last night to get artistacally high and woke up wit a hangover from the over elation that I was feeling. Project not completed but worked on and came out much different from what I wanted but my gift is certainly GOD given, and boy does this gift have its highs.
mosaic
about 1 year ago
64 comments
Yep, natural highs are the best and your work is good. Creativity at the peak is the most wonderful feeling all over and energizes you more and more. Inspiration and determination. Never doubt yourself or you will never make it Artist high is God's great gift to me and I am thankful. A gift from the world's greatest artist.
stevedryden
about 1 year ago
112 comments
What a wonderful feeling! That point in any creative exercise when the spark comes from somewhere else is the peak for me, not the finished article. We know that the process we go through conjures up our most creative and artistic work in that magical moment but would we change the process if we could? Would we forego the angst and turmoil that preceeds the buzz if we could just turn it on like a switch? I think not. No, we have to work to get there or it has less value and wouldn't be the enjoyable high that it is.
jczerbe
about 1 year ago
10 comments
Thanks for sharing your process on this piece. I am fortunate enough to get to paint 10+ hours per week (in spite of having a full time job), and those 10+ hours are truly "not of this world". Getting lost in the path a painting is taking is absolutely the BEST!
Pariswriter
about 1 year ago
4 comments
i love it. it's been a long time since i had that feeling and when i did it was fantastic! the piece you created is so cool. I love it.
howardml
about 1 year ago
8 comments
Valerie,
I enjoy your relating the experience of inspiration or high from being involved in the creative process. Why do you think there are so many artists?
A side note about high artists: historically artists/ shamans have participated in many ceremonies, journies, moments of inspiration from the ingestion of substances which are illegal in our society, mostly due to the abuse of such substances by members of our culture.
Human physiology responds in many ways to the activity of creating art as well as viewing artworks by others. Ain't it cool to get a legal buzz?
I think your watercolor is wonderful.
Andria
about 1 year ago
4 comments
Hi Valerie, Have you exhibited in Youngstown yet? This idea and subject would be a great program for The Butler and our students. Great article and I've experienced this both ways, as well as with my other fields. I am a seamstress, fabric artist, artist , and everything that we all love to do in life, the excitement that comes with all that we do, only pushes us to do more!!! Keep doing!!! Keep creating!!! Robbreisch states it well in his comment also, you're both very good at what you do!!! Thanks and I look forward to seeing you're work At The Butler Museum of American Art, here in Youngstown, Ohio Andria
StormRiter
about 1 year ago
88 comments
very nice piece! Very Creative!
enem73
about 1 year ago
12 comments
enjoyed reading your article. nice piece.
janetinney
about 1 year ago
38 comments
thank you so much for telling us your process....it's one thing to read about artists experiences with their work and how they get "there" and another to do it yourself..and then to have the big ahah! I hope we all will feel safer in sharing our work, after you have taken such a leap of faith in taking the lead .....your project is absolutely exquisite, very sensitive and alot of fun!!!! I hope this is the beginning of a series of pieces......congratulations Valerie
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Artknechtion
about 1 year ago
26256 comments
Congratulations on your piece , Valerie, it is really great. I have Artist 'Highs" all the time. .. and when you paint in the mode you were in ... with your subconscious mind controlling the creative process... often you can do your best work. The natural high from the success of creating something you are very proud of is a wonderful reward. Dennis
arizonared
about 1 year ago
14 comments
wonderful piece on artists high , yes i remember those , soooo loooong ago, that adrenaline, like a kid on christmas morning, thank u for this wonderful piece, and the little me,s i think is the cherry on top BRAVO!!!
Account Removed
about 1 year ago
My favorite place to be! My daughters used to tease me...until, they too, became artists!
jaguarundilady
about 1 year ago
6 comments
Ponder no longer, dear. The "Artist's High" you refer to is a physiological occurance. The brain sensing a pleasurable experience (starting to do your artwork) starts to produce a chemical signal to the body, a hormone called endorphin. This hormonal "high" you feel causes prolonged ability to focus (thus time seems to slip by, unnoticed) and perform. It is not the same as adrenaline, but the feeling can be somewhat the same (not so much a "rush" as a prolonged, calm, stress-free feeling). Endorphins reduce stress and prolong the body's abilities. Long-distance runners get that endorphin high after they get warmed up, it's called "Runner's High". You can get it from working out in the gym too. Women get it more so than men. It happens during childbirth too. It's an evolved survival trait (ability) in females to cope with the energy burden of childbearing and injuries.
Here's a good article on EXACTLY what it is that happened to you: Gwenda Blair "What's behind runner's high? Is it endorphins, adrenaline or simply a sense of accomplishment? Here, we explain the chemical link between exercise and good mood". Shape Magazine. Feb 2005. from: FindArticles.com. 10 Jul. 2008. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0846/is_6_24/ai_n9481984.
Here's an excerpt: "endorphins, hormones that the body produces during exercise that have opiate, or morphinelike, properties. This explanation for what's known as "runner's high"--the euphoric feeling some people get from exercise." And more technically speaking, "Endorphins were discovered when researchers looked into a well-known phenomenon--our ability to get intoxicated from morphine and heroin. They reasoned that we evolved this capacity not to get high from these synthetic drugs but to benefit from endogenous compounds--that is, substances our bodies produce naturally. In the mid-1970s, scientists identified several such opiatelike chemicals that act as messengers throughout the body. Combining the words endogenous and morphine, they coined a new word, endorphin."
I hope that answers your popnderings. Happy painting to you!
But on another level, I wonder why you felt compelled to censor postings from a "13 and older website". I taught middle school, and there wasn't one 11-15 year old I met that didn't know all about illegal drugs and their useage. That's not to say that they all use them. Do you really think that if a young person happens to read something of that nature on your site that they will run out and get some drugs...and that might make you somehow responsible? What happened to free speech. Isn't that why it is an age-restricted site anyway - so we can communicate freely with each other here? Just my thoughts. I hope you don't delete them.
Heppyartist
about 1 year ago
484 comments
I am dissapointed in alot of the other members here is everyone a school teacher or just not concerned with censorship? the painting is still cool but that is not the point.