“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

You are not given 800 or 5,000 milligrams of talent. You are given your own nature, certain portions of it naturally tuning in to what in your case you could call the channel of art. You sense its great dimensions, the richness of its complexity. You are particularly attuned to it.

You naturally express your nature through your use of the channel of art. Your ability to draw upon that channel is endless. The certain-amount-of-ability idea is highly limiting. It forces upon you a sense of responsibility to use what you have, while instead it should mean simply being what you are, and being what you are (underlined) will automatically produce excellent paintings.

Forget the idea of man’s work and what your paintings should (underlined) provide, and the idea of fame or success. Let yourself go with the joy of painting what you want to; but forgetting also, again, the idea that your paintings are working out problems, technical or not.

Now. Regardless of what you think, pure inspiration has nothing to do with time. Each artist has other overall concepts to work with besides those regarding his art.

Van Gogh, for your information, was (underlined) obsessed personally with ideas of self-mutilation, and underwent great inner torture. He chose those feelings however so that he could view the world and reality in a certain light. That light enabled him to do what he wanted to but could not fake: paint the world through that particular unique vision.

Personally then he took upon himself what you would say perhaps were great problems—too great for the personality to handle, but his inner tendencies for self-mutilation always kept his vision true to his main image of the world.

Van Gogh was true to his vision, which means he was true to the self he created for himself in that time, and so must you be. But you must also have faith in what you have done, for it was all done in faithful rendering of your view of reality (in quotes) “at any given time.” And therefore the fact for example that you withheld certain kinds of emotion from it is not a failure.

Now you cannot regard your ability as something apart from yourself, which you must use. It is instead your own characteristic method of expressing reality, of perceiving inner data; the particular channel of your own understanding, learning and application, to which there are no limits.

Your ability is an expression of what you are. Considering it apart from yourself sets up a division that is unnecessary, and can be detrimental in that (underlined) regard.

You place too great a burden upon yourself when you consider your ability something that must (underlined) be used. It flows through you naturally. Many spontaneous ideas for paintings and sketches you automatically reject because of several reasons. They do not fit in with your ideas of work (underlined), or with your idea of what you think you ought (underlined) to do, or because you are being too ponderous, and hence shove away many spontaneously playful ideas.

Your form is ready. The ideas I have given you will bring that form to free life, however, if you use them. Your emotional life has already been enriched of late with the interactions with Ruburt. You are both doing well in following what I told you. Continue to do so.