On a pleasant Sunday morning, Gary bumped in to this blank canvas kept on the top of his cupboard. While dusting it off he realized it had been a while, a couple of months ago perhaps that it used to stand staring at him on the easel. The canvas about 3ft by 2ft stood on the right side of his working table, his creative corner. This was the corner where he used to spend many hours drawing and painting during leisure.

Ideally, he would place the blank canvas on the easel, walk back a few steps and wonder what he would like to paint. He liked to compose the subject first in his mind, the theme, the colors, the tone and the balance. Of course, as he progressed, things could change a little here or there, but it was all around his original image of the idea. He would wait for an inspiration, and start only until he found something interesting to work on.

For him, a blank canvas was not merely a piece of cloth, but as a clear space it was a powerful object, a window to the universe, an escape in to the world of his making. He wouldn’t have enough freedom to create something new if there were too many things already there in the space. Hence symbolically, it was an inspiration a reminder of being empty, being complete in the moment so that something new could be brought in to reality. Within two dimensions bringing him the possibility for a creation that was multi-dimensional.

And just like a paint brush is an instrument, he thought of himself also to be like an ‘instrument’ through which the painting would get created. His experiences, his thoughts, his feelings and emotions, all of it had to do greatly on how he would express himself. In the deeper sense he had to create himself first before he created the art! 

At times this “blank canvas” even occurred to him as a piece of art itself. Depicting the powerful message of a clear mind before an anticipated reality. “What a brilliant idea it would be to frame this blank canvas and hang it on the wall of the living room with other paintings!” He thought to himself. 

He had made many paintings before, but his experience this time was very different. It became a place of great revelation for life’s important message. It not only reminded of ‘life that could be’ and which was in waiting, but also that he had to create it himself. The blank canvas was much like a place where he was searching for the missing links. Or like in school exams life too offered him questions and he had to ‘fill in the blanks’ the answer unique to his desire.

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Sometimes in life, less ‘important’ things become our priority, and even before we know it, doing things we love become a task in waiting. We just put it aside and conveniently forget about it until we cross our paths with it someday. The restrictions, constrictions due to fears and worries, grudges we have for others prevent us from living freely, living fully. 

Likening life with art, if we see life as a painting, first we must create a blank canvas, by becoming empty by letting go off all the things that hold us back, secondly take a perspective view of it, think and create ideas about future we want and finally start painting the canvas by being the person we want to be! 

MFN Trainer and Head of Operations of Daksha: rishabh.shah@daksha.net