THE ALCHEMY OF LOVE
THE ALCHEMY OF LOVE
In my previous post , I mentioned that when painting, by staying in the flow and in real time, we become aware of the present moment and perhaps find ourselves in that very moment.
This time I want to delve a little deeper.
Perhaps, for a painting to transcend mere production and become art, one must become one with the painting while creating it. Just like in love. When you stand before a painting, after a while you stop thinking about what you're doing. You are simply there. You and the painting. There's no list of things to do next in your mind. The worries of the past, the fears of the future, the tasks you need to complete, the phone calls, the messages, the anxieties gradually fade away. The rest of the world falls silent for a while. You are left alone with the painting.
Perhaps love is exactly like this;
Looking at each other.
Being curious about each other.
Approach.
To listen.
And after a certain point, you can't tell where you begin and where they begin and end.
When the wall between you and the painting disappears, the meaning of time and space changes.
As you touch the painting, the painting begins to touch you. It can be difficult to name what is flowing there.
Inspiration, insight, intuition, emotion… or all of them.
In our daily lives, we often learn to run away from ourselves.
We work, we talk, we check our phones, we go places… We constantly keep ourselves busy with something. Amidst all this, we rarely get a chance to hear what's going on inside us. But when you're truly alone in front of the painting, you have fewer places to escape. And something catches you. Perhaps a part of you has been seen for the first time in a long time. Your heart overflows. This encounter also triggers the desire to escape. To move away from the painting, to do something else, to pick up the phone, to talk—again, to distance yourself from yourself.
But if you can stay… that’s when things will start to change.
Perhaps that's why painting is a kind of alchemy and creative process for me.
For Carl Gustav Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, "alchemy" is not merely a story of a material transformation, such as lead or an impure substance turning into gold. Jung describes the alchemical process as a journey towards "individuation," a process of confronting one's unconscious and integrating with one's shadow to reach one's authentic self.
He says that humans develop a "persona," or social mask, to exist within society. This makes it easier for us to interact with society. But over time, we may begin to mistake the mask for our face. The strong man, the sweet girl, the holy mother, the useless youth... Identities that seem to belong to us, but which we may have adopted over the years. As the persona thickens, it can become harder to hear our true self beneath it. The dissolution process in alchemy corresponds to the metaphor of this mask melting away.
Dissolving what has solidified.
The fake one melting away.
Leaving behind what doesn't belong to us.
And beneath all of this, to encounter a truer "self."
The act of painting can also be a gateway to facilitate this encounter. When you pick up a brush, you don't just apply paint to the canvas; you leave something of yourself behind. And sometimes, the canvas gives something back to you. It is within that exchange that a transformation begins.
Today, social media encourages artists to share their production process, become increasingly visible, produce faster, and transform their production into a performance.
The camera turns on.
The lights are being installed.
Someone is watching.
Someone likes it.
Someone is commenting.
And suddenly, thousands of eyes intrude into that intimate space where you're alone with the painting.
You're no longer just painting. You're being watched. Without realizing it, a third person enters that special relationship between you and the painting: the viewer.
However, there are moments in both love and the act of painting that the audience doesn't want. They should remain between just the two people involved.
I think many painters, myself included, are more introverted people. Of course, this isn't true for everyone. But painting is often a journey inward, not outward. It requires silence, solitude, listening, waiting, and forgetting oneself.
Therefore, being in front of the camera, constantly talking, showing off, and performing may not be a natural field for every painter. Someone who already enjoys being in front of the camera and on stage might feel more free in another art form.
In the theater, on the film set, in performance art…
There's nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, these are all different forms of artistic expression. But it's important to get the concepts right.
In some of the content we see on social media under the name of "visual art," I see artists who are actually performing rather than painting. And I don't see a problem with that. The problem is equating the two.
Because a performance artist doesn't need to be called a painter for their work to be valuable. Similarly, a painter doesn't need to perform in front of a camera for their work to be valuable.
Maybe sometimes you just need to put your phone down.
Without having to look beautiful.
Without having to be fast.
Without having to prove anything.
Without thinking about the consequences.
Just look at the picture.
Talking to him.
Listen to him.
Sometimes I get angry at him.
Sometimes, it's better to distance yourself from him.
Then approach again.
Just like in a love story.
Because, like true love, true creation leaves you feeling changed, even if only slightly. You realize that it's not just the colors, shapes, and light that change on the canvas. You, too, have changed.
Something has been resolved.
Something has been opened.
Something has been left behind.
And a part of you that you had never seen before has become visible.
This is alchemy.
Before you can turn lead into gold, you need to melt down what you think you are and find the true, shining essence that's still there beneath all those layers.
That is the greatest gift of art.
All we need to do is sometimes leave the whole world outside and stand in front of a canvas. Then, without expecting anything in return, we just pick up the brush.
And allowing oneself to fall in love with painting.
Ahsen Küçükçalık
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