The real cycle your're working on is a cycle called yourself. The machine that appears to be 'out there' and the person that appears to be 'in here' are not two separate things. They grow toward quality or fall away from quality together. Painting as means to knowledge and instrument of individuation - this seems to meet the potentiality of the medium and to correspond to the time. When that is done successfully then everything else follows naturally.
Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts.
Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all.