The samples I've attached are work I've done using the 'Point Zero' painting technique by Michele Cassou.

Her approach to painting and creativity is to approach it intuitively and with joy. As she explains, "Point Zero is the place of all possibilities, the ground from which pure creation springs. It is a place of receptivity, with its own momentum, its own order. It is a place of no interference, the background of all that is. Point Zero is the time between two thoughts, the place between two breaths, a place of rest, of no movement, of silence of the mind. It is a potentially pregnant void. You are at Point Zero when you let yourself feel, no matter what the feeling brings."1

This technique appealed to me, because it allowed for my unconscious to be given expression with free reign. Normally, I would get so caught up in self-criticism that I would lose the joy of whatever impulse had led me to sit down and create.
With this approach, the focus isn't on technique or even on a real representation of whatever image is in your mind's eye. The approach simply says "Let Go and Paint!" You just allow for whatever colors or shapes that make themselves known, to take expression on the paper. Generally, a color would present itself and I would go from there.

What amazes me most about this technique is how it mirrors issues that have been unresolved for me since back in my formal art training days. For example, Alone-2 (Point Zero Sample) shows an amorphous figure hovering in the foreground of a ubiquitous background. The arms and legs are not fully formed - as though the figure is to a certain degree immobilized.

Back in the late 1980's, I drew Alone-1. It was an attempt at a self-portrait (although it became more of who I wanted to look like). She is alone, arms wrapped tight around her torso - as though she is holding herself together or giving self solace.
I was not diagnosed with bipolar at the time I made this drawing. But I had a difficult time connecting to either the world or the people around me. In Alone-2, I have been diagnosed for almost 8 years. I still have a difficult time connecting, as I have a life experience that often leaves me feeling alienated from the experiences of my peers. It asks a question that never leaves me, "Can I move forward, safely?"

"Point Zero Creativity Without Limits", Cassou, Michele. P.22

    
 


    
 


    
Alone 1

    
 


    
Alone 2

    
 


    
Howlers

    
 


    
 


    
Lost Connection

    
 


    
 


    
See!


    
 

    
 


    
 


    
Self - 5 Pents

Please email me for more information:   dajax1@earthlink.net