It makes sense that intuition be a key ingredient for successful art making. To me, it's always meant that if you just listen to your gut, you will know the right thing to do. I've always found however, that when I struggle most, I feel as if though my intuition has left the building. So, I was a bit surprised during my artist residency at the Mill Pond Gallery, when a friend who stopped by in the midst of my art making wildness, (which was wilder then usual because I was still painting at 9pm at night), asked me if I was an intuitive painter. In my painting/exhausted buzz, I said, "sure, yes, that is exactly what I am."

Wild Woman Painting. I was feeling quite wild at the time....

But when I evaluated that statement against how I have defined intuition, since my early 20s, after reading "Women who Run with the Wolves" I felt a bit like a fraud.

“With the wild nature as ally and teacher we see not through two eyes but through the many eyes of intuition. ”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

You see, when I paint, I rely on my understanding of composition, design and colour, to guide my decisions. I know the rules, and love to cling to them. That doesn't sound very wild natured.... But there is a wildness to the way that I work. I can't deny that. To me, the red orange pink combination feels very wild and bold.

Personally, I believe that intuition is exactly as Pinkola Estes describes, it is my wild nature, but when that wild nature has been strongest, and bravest it recognizes when I don't have enough knowledge to do what it is I am meant to do, and has encouraged me to seek out more knowledge and more wisdom, from working with amazing teachers or studying inspirational artists and visiting art galleries and museums. All this has encouraged me to experiment, play, be wild, but then measure that against my knowledge and experience. So, when I came upon this description of intuition, which takes into account that their isn't one single way of knowing, I felt like I hit the jackpot.

“ntuition is not a single way of knowing - it’s our ability to hold space for uncertainty and our willingness to trust the many ways we’ve developed knowledge and insight, including instinct, experience, faith
and reason.”

— Brene Brown

So now I am wondering.... How do you define intuition?

Redefining Intuition in Art