The Wildness Within

28 May

There’s a particular kind of wildness that lives beneath the surface of our everyday lives. It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t demand. But it’s there — in our restlessness, our curiosity, our longing to make something that wasn’t there before.

This is the wildness of creativity.

Not the kind that wrecks a schedule or smashes every teacup — but the quieter, more resilient wildness. The wildness that insists on not knowing for a while. That trusts instinct more than instruction. That steps off the marked path and wanders into something unnamed.

In her extraordinary book The Living Mountain, Nan Shepherd wrote:

“To aim for the highest point is not the only way to climb a mountain.”

Nan walked the Cairngorms not to conquer them but to enter into relationship with them. She trusted slowness. Uncertainty. She believed the mountain revealed itself not through power, but through presence. It’s a lesson we could take into our creative lives as well: to explore, to wait, to follow what unfolds.

The creative process often asks us to let go. Of outcomes. Of certainty. Of the illusion of control.
Two artists, from very different places and traditions, embody this trust in unpredictability — each in her own powerful way.

Shani Rhys James

Welsh-Australian painter Shani Rhys James creates fierce, emotionally raw paintings that crackle with inner wildness. Her self-portraits, domestic scenes, and childhood symbols (dolls, mirrors, curtains) don’t seek to soothe — they confront. They question.

Her work is about being seen — in all its mess and intensity. It reminds us that wildness isn’t just found in forests or waves. It lives in our homes, in our memories, in our faces. Especially in the parts of ourselves we’ve tried to quiet.

Her art doesn’t ask for permission. It feels — deeply, unapologetically — and then paints from that place.

Christi Belcourt

Christi Belcourt, a contemporary Métis artist based in Canada, offers another form of wildness — no less powerful, but more reverent and rhythmic.

Inspired by traditional Métis beadwork, she paints thousands of tiny dots by hand, creating rich floral and organic compositions that honour plants, insects, and ancestral teachings.
Every dot is a prayer. A breath. A connection.

Belcourt’s work speaks of interconnection — between people and the land, between the smallest beetle and the tallest pine. She says:

“Everything in nature — the tiniest insect to the largest tree — has spirit. And I paint to honour that spirit.”

Her wildness is not rebellion — it is return. To respect, to intuition, to relationship with the living world.

A Gentle Invitation

So much of creativity is unpredictable.
What if that’s not a problem, but a strength?

This week, I invite you to loosen your grip. Choose a material you don’t usually work with. Take a walk without a route. Let yourself create without knowing the outcome. Allow your inner wilderness a little space to breathe.