We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael Prettyman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Michael thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of our favorite things to brainstorm about with friends who’ve built something entrepreneurial is what they would do differently if they were to start over today. Surely, there are things you’ve learned that would allow you to do it over faster, more efficiently. We’d love to hear how you would go about setting things up if you were starting over today, knowing everything that you already know.

If I were starting over, knowing what I know today, I would commit myself absolutely, and understand that one must not wait for permission to become oneself. I would like to tell my younger self, and any young people reading this, that commitment to a vision is not selfish and it is not egotism. Commitment to a personal vision is a form of altruism- nothing good was ever done in a vacuum. Excellence in art and in scholarship may be done in isolation, but the work is only completed when another person sees it. It has to be as good as you can make it. When I started, like many artists my resources were limited. At times I took this as a kind of failure, but I never should have. Limited material resources is a state of grace, it is a gift because it forces you to look for the real resource, the source of resources, your own inventiveness. It’s not selfish to devote your time and energy to a vision, even to a totalizing degree. BUT- dont expect a parade. You have to do it for yourself before it can be of use to anyone else.

Michael, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a visual artist and a scholar of religion. I am a life long seeker. Contemporary art can show people the life-giving relevancy of world wisdom traditions in ways that traditional approaches to art and religion cannot. I show my paintings in galleries and museums around the world, and have a degree in theology from the Harvard Divinity School, where I was the first person to pursue a degree in theological studies as a visual artist. My life was changed when I nearly died in the Himalayan mountains- having lived, I found a new urgency and beauty in life, and spend all my time telling and showing people, through my art and teaching, the astounding beauty and terrible love that seems to be at the core of this existence. I am currently completing a series of landscape paintings that depict forest fires within a traditional romantic landscape and exhibited in a gallery in Taiwan.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

The critical role of meaning in any endeavor. There are a lot of misconceptions about art and artists- one of the big ones, and one they do not address in art schools is importance of meaning, both in life and in art. Art schools are good at telling you how to paint, but less good at what to paint, and no good at all about the most important question, why make art in the first place? These are the questions that led me to spend months in India and Nepal, and eventually pursue a Masters in Theology at Harvard. Making large scale works of art, especially a representational oil painting, takes an enormous amount of time and energy. The energetic demands are high because the quality of an artwork is dependent upon the quality of attention the artist brings to it- there is no zoning out at the easel. In order to do this day in and day out, the artist must find subject matter that is meaningful- not to others, one should never imagine what other people might think- but to oneself. The painting has to be important in the mind of the artist. For me this is experienced at first as a kind of rush, it feels a lot like falling in love. Once in love, I am committed, and I do not act to make the idea into a material reality, if I don’t draw or paint it, the idea begins to itch. The itch grows into a scratch, not because it is inherently unpleasant, but because it has meaning and wants very much to be born. Standing in the way of something inside oneself that wants to grow does not feel good. I think a lot of people know that we create out of a kind of passion and love, this cliche is true. What people don’t know is that there is a lot pain involved as well, and a good bit of failure. I am much much happier now that I know I have a fail rate- even with ideas that I know to be heavy with meaning and capable of sustaining me through the hours and days I will need to make them into something real, even a good portion of these will not live. This is not their fault, it is mine. My fail rate is about 40%, and this used to really bother me, after all, I dont start something unless and until it presents itself to me as being ripe with meaning. But the truth is that life is hard, art is harder, and any human endeavor worth the candle is difficult. The surprising thing is not that I fail 40% of the time but that I succeed 60%. Its more than enough! But, before I knew this truth I wasted a lot time in regret, I didn’t understand that the ones that don’t work out just get folded back into the mix, no idea is ever wasted if you make an attempt to realize it. Ideas don’t know death, they only know reincarnation.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Life and knowing how to live it! I noticed really early on in my career that after spending a few hours painting I needed to take a walk and clear my head. There is real difference in the experience of these walks after painting- the shadows are not grey they are a kind of purple, the sky is not ceiling it is a dome stitched through with birds, dust motes make a shaft of light into a cathedral. this remains as true today as it was 25 years ago. I live in New York City now, and get up before the sun so I can be the only one walking around in the hushed dark streets. Its a miracle and I am so glad to be here to see it. I do not think I would be able to see these things, these sacred things, if I had not committed to a creative life. If there is one thing I want to bring into my paintings, it is this sense of the everyday sacred that is not dependent on any church or creed. I feel in these moments I am a part of something that is far more beautiful that anything man made- it is a dangerous sort of beauty, and one that is strange and vulnerable in equal measure. Life can be heartbreaking and dont get me wrong, I’ve already had more than my fair share of tragedy. But its like the last lines in the Desiderata, “for all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, this is still a beautiful world. So be cheerful! Strive to be happy.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.michaelprettyman.org
• Instagram: @colorofwolves

Image Credits

all images by Michael Prettyman