Automatism: Letting My Subconscious Speak

Getting Out of My Own Way

No thinking. No planning. No overanalyzing. I put brush to canvas and just go. Sometimes it feels like my hands know more than my brain does?!?

And every single time, I step back and look at what I’ve made, I’m in complete shock.

Did I really do this? Me?

At no point during this am I aware of the clock. I just keep going. That’s when my brain is quiet. When it’s not running conversations, worrying about what people will think, or trying to control everything. Just me and empty brain space.

Pure input becomes greater output.

What Is Automatism?

Automatism is creating without conscious thought, letting your subconscious take the lead. The term comes from physiology, describing movements like breathing or sleepwalking that happen without thinking.

In the 1920s, Surrealists like André Breton made it a core practice. He called it:

“Pure psychic automatism, the dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason and outside all moral or aesthetic concerns.”

Artists like Max Ernst, Joan Miró, André Masson, and later Jackson Pollock experimented with automatic drawing, painting, and collage. Letting instinct, movement, and chance guide their work. Even before surrealism, artists tapped into trance or visionary states to create in a similar way.

The Science Behind It

Your conscious mind makes up about 5–10% of what you notice. The other 90–95% , your subconscious—holds memories, feelings, habits, intuition, and creativity. Automatism taps into that larger part of your mind. That’s how I can create something raw and intense without planning it, and be 100% surprised by the outcome.

The Magic of Unpredictability

It’s such a cool process because you never know what’s coming. Sometimes you tap back into reality and it’s complete bullsh*t. Other times, it’s the best piece you’ve ever created in your whole life. That unpredictability is part of the magic.

Mistakes Don’t Exist

In those moments, mistakes aren’t mistakes. Every mark, every color, every accidental line has meaning because it’s coming from a place deeper than thought. My subconscious is running the show. Automatism isn’t about making “good art.” But somehow…my stuff is always good? idk. Some of my most raw, intense pieces come from trusting that whatever emerges is valid, even if it surprises me.

Stepping Into Something Bigger

It feels like stepping into a space that’s bigger than me. A space where instinct, memory, emotion, and intuition collide and take form. I don’t guide it. I witness it. And somehow, in that quiet, the art finds its own voice.

I can’t explain it in words. I just stand there, stunned, amazed at what my own hands created.