That little boy, skinny - ridiculously so - who, in his head was a little muscleman! LOL! A yellow No. 2 pencil in his hand, trying to draw a flower growing out of pot, the underbelly of a car, the "Mach 5," and on and on. Trying to master this drawing thing; trying to learn how to color within the lines as his older cousins did so well. And thinking about how to get his hands on a paint set and when he does, being disappointed that it didn't look like the picture on the box! That little boy, wanting to fit in, but so sure he didn't, he stayed to himself and created a world of his own...
Fifty-two at my last birthday; two young adult children of my own and a fifteen year old who is taller than me. I'm far from 'skinny,' now, but a great deal of my mass is muscle! Years of "on again, off again," weight training and big meals and I'm consistently over 200 pounds - way over! I wouldn't say I've "mastered" pencil or painting tools; what I like to believe is it is a life long process of developing skills and more importantly, speaking images into form. At the moment, I'm not nervous about the lack of work created because when my hands aren't busy, my mind is so active, I would need to concurrently work five canvases to get all this stuff out! And I don't 'sweat' that I'm not in a studio for eight hours a day because, this is another step in the growth process. Baby steps...
Last night I spent some time working on "Linen - A Storm's Coming," and realized that techniques I either learned in college or just "figured out" on my own were the finishing touches to bring this piece to completion. The image is more than I would have thought possible and had to "grow" organically. And like me, it's "end" is far larger than it's beginning...
"Who dares despise the day of small things?" Zechariah 4:10 NIV
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