Gilbert creates from a place of deep spirituality and simultaneous pragmatism that is refreshing and inspiring. I plowed through the book in a matter of days and, much to my surprise, found myself brimming with ideas and inspiration after I had finished it. Somehow, in the course of a few days of binge reading my magical fatigue lifted and I've been left with a singular, burning desire to CREATE.

So today, we’re going to talk about art magic!

If you’re like me, you hear the words "art magic" and your mind immediately goes "Um, YES!" followed quickly by a deluge of overwhelm as six million ideas flood your brain and you quickly lose track of how art and magic actually connect.

Unlike regular art which generally has the purpose of simply being (or sometime communicating), art magic is made for doing. As with all magic, the object is to create some kind of action out of manipulating energetic forces. The artwork you create in this endeavor should start with what you want it to do.

What kind of magic can you do with art? Any kind! Truly any kind of magic can be done with artwork. The sky's the limit! You may find that you have personal preferences as to which kinds of magic mix best with your artistic style but that’s 100% up to your discretion and personal tastes.

Feel like making a painting that’ll serve as a ward for the room it’s hung in? You can do that. Want to foster self love through art magic? You can do that too. Feel like creating a spirit portal for contacting the spirits of the dead? Yep, you can do that as well. If you can dream up a spell, you can probably do it with artwork! You can even use art magic in worshiping your gods, venerating ancestors or in your shadow work.

Similarly, there’s no limit to the type of art that can be paired with magic. Creativity practically IS magic! Do You paint? Draw? Sing? Play an instrument? Dance? Act? Sculpt? Write? Do you create weird video performances? Do you make ART? Then you can almost certainly make magic with it!

Whatever it is that you do as a creative person, it can be turned into an act of magic.

Connecting Art & Magic

Art magic can be broken down into three main categories of approach. Adding magic to your art, the act of creation being magic, and art as a form of co-creation with inspiration itself.

Adding Magic To Your Art

The first approach is the easiest and most straightforward. Adding magic to your art includes things like mixing paint with charged water, enchanting your pencils or adding sigils onto your dance shoes or instrument. Whatever your art may be, you are creating the magic beforehand and adding it to your art as you create.

This method is definitely the most concrete way to go, whatever witchy skills you have can be directly applied to your artwork in this way.

Some other ways to add magic to art include:

Enchanting reeds or guitar picks

Putting a charm on your erasers

Using infused water to clean paint brushes

Putting spells on notebooks and sketchbooks

Drawing sigils on canvases before you paint over them

Writing spells into your stories

Stitching enchantments or sigils into your smock

Adding magical symbolism into collages

Using pressed leaves or flowers to add texture and magic to your work

Enchanting scripts so that you don’t forget your lines

The Act Of Creation as Magic

Things start getting a little more complex with this route. In order to turn your acts of creation into magic you have to learn to channel magic into whatever it is that you’re doing. Instead of the magic being separate from the art, the art IS the magic.

Just as you would use magic hand gestures and spoken spells you can direct your magic into the actual action of creating your artwork. In this way, making the artwork is itself a spell.

Remember, magic is built on imagination and intent! If you pour both of those into any act it becomes inherently magical. Art is by very definition imaginative so all that remains to make it magical is to intend it to be magical. That may sound too easy but that’s truly it, if you intend a creative action to be a spell and produce a result, it will! All you have to do is decide what you wish your artwork to accomplish.

Examples of how art can BE magic:

Writing a story as a method of changing reality

Singing incantations or simply turning the lyrics of your favorite song into an incantation

Composing pieces of music as a spell

Paintings that function as sigils

Dancing and allowing your intent to move you

Filling a sketchbook with magical drawings all aimed at one purpose

Sculpting magical objects

Creating jewelry that lends magic to the wearer

Co-Creation With the Spirit of Inspiration