Creation and Time Through the Eyes of a Painter by Barrett Walsh

To understand the world around us, humans have created stories to explain the universe's formation. One example comes from the Bible in the chapter of Genesis. God spends seven days making the sky, oceans, and land. Then, he brings every animal and plant to life. In this story, God is the creator, who desires to create a new world. We see how dedication allows for an idea to become reality. Whether you are religious and believe in God or see this story as a fable, the connection between a creator and time spent at work is shown to readers. The connection between creation and time is important when examining what it means to be an artist. 

There are many ways to interpret the terms artist, creator, and inventor. In many cases, to be one is to be the other. Over the years, specialization evolved for artists, musicians, designers, and creators to make careers out of their passions. Even chefs dedicate their lives to cooking, experimenting, and creating new recipes for the world to enjoy. The ability to study art in school allowed for even more focus on craft and resulted in an intense relationship between creators and time. Artists rely on their creativity, talents, and practice to live, resulting in a pressure and necessity to create.

Lauren Boysa is in her junior year as a painting major at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts. She began painting seriously when she was 13 and has invested over eight years in painting, learning, and practicing her art. Now, as an art student, she dedicates herself and her career to art. Her main medium is oil on canvases, but she also loves experimenting with sculpture, drawing, and more. 

“Art is my nine-to-five,” said Boysa when discussing her relationship with time. Time is money for everyone, but especially for those who create. On average, Boysa spends three weeks on each painting. Her process varies for each piece, but after practicing for so long, she has it down to a science. 

Boysa begins by planning the painting, going through past sketches, finding inspiration, and imagining. She draws upon moments of reality, imagining different possible outcomes or settings to create works that are both realistic and dreamlike. Boysa also looks at photos and references, which she may incorporate into her idea. Then, she creates the canvas and the unique and detailed color palette of each painting. Time restraints may limit her color palette, though she prefers to incorporate the entire rainbow of colors.

“When you look at a finished painting you only see the final product,” Boysa said. She knows that everyone sees her work with their own biases and conceptions of what is good or bad–if good and bad even exist. For an artist, to see a painting they made is to see themselves. Boysa sees her thoughts, her time, and her creation. She recognizes the conscious and subconscious parts of her that come out in her art. The painting becomes the painter, so how is an artist meant to separate their minds from their work?

Boysa relaxes by experimenting with other mediums like sculpture and drawing–what she calls “liberating” and “fast-paced” mediums. In art school, Boysa explained, they tell you to keep creating. According to the Milan Art Institute, it is better to push through the artist's blocks and to create anything you can rather than stop working (Milan Art Institute, 2021). However, it is also important to rest, which Boysa emphasized is hard when paintings need to be done. 

In their junior year, painting majors at Boston University are given their very first personal studio. The studio is a space specifically for them, where they are meant to do their work. This allows for a separation between the projects and the artist’s house, though Boysa described the studio as her “second home.” The studios bring the painting majors together to form a sense of community as they paint together. Creators need support, to keep going even when they feel stuck. Also in junior year, the painters begin creating their own body of work, with the leisure to make what they want. The whole world is at their fingertips, which can be overwhelming, especially with deadlines. Support is what gets the artists through. The community encourages open discussions, asking questions, and helping each other out. Boysa has become close friends with many other CFA students and feels comfortable creating because she is in a positive and judgment-free space.

Going back to the story of God, we remember the creator is the driver, the one in charge, and it is what they feel inside that leads to creation. The artist themselves must decide what they think and how they want to spend their time. To see a single painting is to see an entire life and passion that led to the moment when the painter’s brush and canvas meet for the first time.

As humans have evolved, there has been an innate connection between us and creation. Humans began inventing tools for survival, eventually creating ways of expression and communication. Humans use their consciousness in connection with the physical world to make something from nothing. Growing up, Boysa did just that. Her dad, a house painter, has been influential in pushing her to keep working and follow her passion for art as a career. In all the years, her styles and themes have changed as she learns more about herself, painting, and the world around her. Currently, she focuses on surrealism, combining images of nature and animals. Boysa said she has emphasized the theme of animal and human likeness in her past works, with human-like animal forms. As a lover of nature and preservation, her art calls out how society views wild animals. As if to say they are people, too.

C.G. Jung, a well-known psychologist, notes, “Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes (them) its instrument.” Each medium of art and creation is different, but the definition of a creator is still the same. To be a creator is to feel a passion that drives you to dedicate your time to craft. The hours, days, months, and years that creators use for one project shows just how important creating is to them. 

“There is something on the other side of every painting,” Boysa says. Starting a painting is taking a chance. She doesn’t know how long it will take her, what it will look like in the end, or if she will be the same when it is finished. All she knows is that she is doing what feels right when spending time creating.