You can find out a lot more about me here: https://michaeltopic.wordpress.com/
I love colours. Not colour. Colour is an abstract concept. I love the actual colours. Concrete. Real. Tangible. Each one is a friend. Each one affects me subtly differently. Colours dance and sing together. That harmony of light inspires me, excites me, uplifts me, energises me and infuses me with joy and well being. Colours, seen in relation to each other, offer tranquillity. Bright colours are the direct route to saturated beauty. Abundant colour is abundant beauty.
The act of painting is, for me, the transference of pure love. Love for the colours and what I see as my subject, through the canvas and the paint, to the viewer. I paint to surround myself with beauty and to counteract the excess ugliness in the world. Beauty is the antidote. Beauty is the solution.
Painting is my newest medium to express innovation, creativity, beauty, hope and the future. I didn’t paint at all until I was in my mid forties. I didn’t draw either. Somewhere along the way I had been convinced that artistic talent was for somebody else. I had listened to people programmed by a lifetime of subtle propaganda to function in and perpetuate a capitalist society. Now I have glimpsed the truth: that art is for everybody. Art is democratic and anarchistic, in the very best senses of those words. Criticism and denigration of any artist’s work is but an artefact of commerce and hierarchy. Convincing somebody to forsake their art is nothing more than an abuse of power. Knowing this is empowering.
But don’t conclude that I had no medium at all until my forties. I have always had a creative medium. It has been (and still is) music, invention, software, electronics, ideas, wood, metal, my garden, writing. In each medium, I find the colours and I use them to express my inner joy.
Creating lets me exert a meaningful counter pressure to the crushing weight of conformity, convention, oppression and restrictions against freedom that sit like a dead weight on all of us. Some blithely buy into the propaganda and don’t trouble themselves with the obviously inexplicable things that belie the truth. I cannot. I am too aware. I can sense intuitively that all is not what it seems, with the world. Creating is my one way to fight back and maintain my equilibrium and peace. I choose to fight with love and beauty. And when I fight, I fight with lightness, wit, surprise, delight, some humour and without taking myself too seriously. Ultimately, the bad guys can’t win against abundant love and beauty.
Painting is the latest tool in my self-appointed mission to imagine, invent, inspire, create, encourage, enlighten and edify.
The opinions stated here are my own and not necessarily the opinion or position of my employer.
Creative Ideas for Starving Artists 
Just want to let you know, I find your philosophy inspiring. Creativity heals. 🙂 (and thanks for the follow!)
Hey, I’m so glad you find something useful in all the words. 🙂 I’m looking forward to reading more about how you make home recording less scary. It can be very intimidating, can’t it?
Hi! I have nominated you for the versatile blogger award. Go to http://thetruthwarrior.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/the-versatile-blogger-award/ for more…… Well done and keep up the inspiring work!! Namaste. TW
Wow. Thanks for nominating me. I appreciate it.
Congratulations! I have just given you the Kreative Blogger Award and The ABC Award – you can find out more about this here on my blog http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/2012/05/07/awards-in-march-and-april/ I do hope that you will accept these awards in the spirit in which they are sent to you. With best wishes – and thank you for your blog. Alyson
Thanks 🙂
Please accept my Versatile Blogger Award nomination at http://candidconcourse.wordpress.com/
Gosh! Another award. I am very flattered, but I don’t think my blog has suddenly gotten much better than before 🙂 Thank you. It’s very kind.
thank you as well..when i read your https://tropicaltheartist.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/what-do-you-care-about/ post, the song ‘How I Got Over’ by the Roots immediately came to mind, i appreciated reading your insights 🙂
Thank you. I don’t know the song, but I am going to go and find it and give it a listen. 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI4D1QOLGuM Great lyrics!
Loved your write-up on the need for a room in which you can make no mistakes. I’ve been struggling with the very same problem, namely the fear of the unspoken critic, and the reality of the all too often outspoken critic whom you can’t get away from (yes they’re family and I live with them!) and how it can lead to the death of ideas that are in their embryonic stages. All this time I’ve been struggling with my own psyche, believing that it was simply my own fault that I couldn’t follow through on a concept. However, in retrospect and in light of this article, I realise now that I am not alone in this problem. Sometimes (or maybe always) you need that quiet headspace that will allow a whispy train of thought, as song ideas often are, to precipitate onto your Digital Audio Workstation, paper or whatever medium you are working with. I liken these thoughts to clouds, where one may attempt to capture their essence before the winds of distraction and interruption dissipate their form, thereby resulting in a unique idea being irretrievably lost within the limitless confines of space and time
I thank you for your thoughts and distillation of a very important idea.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I think it’s a more common issue than most artists imagine. That clear air, where the clouds of thought can be observed and captured, is pretty essential.
I know that you have a shelf-full of these but I hope you don’t mind one more! http://onetrackmuse.com/2012/05/14/the-very-inspiring-blogger-award/
I’m very grateful for the acknowledgement. I thank you humbly.
Thanks for your thoughts, which we will use on a roundtable on the gift economy in New Zealand at the end of the month. I can’t see anything about you on this site. Is that deliberate? I’d be interested to know your name and where you are based.
My name is Michael Topic and I am based in the UK, but I am an Australian by birth. I am honoured that you found something in my writing worth using at your roundtable. Thank you.
I really love your posts. THey definitely get the cogs rolling, and have helped me generate some ideas.
I’d like to nominate your for the Liebster Award. I was kind of surprised how much fun I had with it, especially since I had no idea what it actually was when I was nominated. But here’s a link to when I was nominated, so you can get a gist of it (if you haven’t already come to experience it yet 🙂 )
Gosh. Thanks. 🙂
Well there is nothing new I can add to all your accolades from other bloggers, but count me in as one inspired by your words! And thanks for following. One colours lover to another!
Colour lovers are special, I think. Always good to find another. Thank you for your kindness. I appreciate it. I’m glad I inspire with my words. It’s what I ideally would like to do with them, so it’s very gratifying that some people see it like that. I like the whole concept of your site too. Thanks so much for commenting.
You’re amazing! Thanks for the follow!~^^
You are very welcome and thank you.
Thank you for following our website. We sincerely appreciate your support. Cheers!
-Marpay Fitness
Creativity is a gift from God. Everyone is born with it yet few discover their own creativity because our creativity is stiffed in our young age at home, or at schools or by social norms. But then when we calm our mind clutter our creativity is unleashed. There are no age barriers so the quote “A creative adult is the child that survived”! 🙂
Regards.
I really like your blog. For this reason I’ve nominated you for a Versatile Blogger award. For more info please click on the following link…
https://theslider.org/2016/10/31/the-slider-gets-a-versatile-blogger-award/
That’s very kind. Thank you.