Thought for The Day - Starting

It begins...

Lift

Move

Wiggle

Stumble

Fall

Adjust

Try

Again
   and
Again
   and
Again

Sometimes I sit and stare at the canvas. Some days that's hard to do, so I glance over my shoulder. I look at the paint drying on the palette. I glance at the top left hand corner for the beginning point, where the inspiration began. I pull out my sketch book and get stuck with the choices...but it isn't until I put paint to brush and brush to canvas, that anything happens. Thought without action, intent with movement is an unknown factor.

But it starts with the intention, the desire; sometimes we can't articulate what it is. It's an impulse, a twitch in our head. But by all means start, try, stumble, fall, cry, moan, laugh and continue!

Thought for The Day - A Sliver of Sunlight

In the darkest of days - overcast, blustery and cold - a light can shine into your life. It breaks through for a minute or two, unexpectedly. In the heart of a Chicago fall or winter day, a moment or two of intense sunlight is needed to break the grip of the doldrums.

Some clouds hang low, they are thick and dark and on a walk along the river or the lake, the air grips you and sinks into your bones. But mostly the darkness is the pain of a life, searching for a way to live to its full.

So when a moment comes along, the winds die down and that light flashes from above; when you feel it's warmth and it eases away the pain, if only for a moment, there's the promise of a life much better. Hold on to it, cherish it.

There's always more to come.

If My Peers are The Standard...

After the Dance

 Competition is a funny thing; it can be subtle, nearly undetectable, like natural gas without the ‘funk’ additive. J It sneaks up on you, especially when your aim is to live your life on your own terms. Not everyone lives with a ‘scarcity mentality,’ that is, a belief that there’s only a short amount of ______ to go around. A classic example from my past is high school and college art courses. In Still Life 1 (too long ago to be sure if that was a title), we came into the classroom and the teacher arranged a boot, a glass vase, a gourd and a plastic apple and orange, on a table. Our assignment was to draw the images. In a classroom with artists skilled in hand-eye coordination, in an hour’s time, they were finished, including shading, highlights and rendering the various textures. But there were other students who, in an hour’s time, were struggling to round the orange, or they somehow had the boot looking like a swatch of cowhide. But there was a third group: the students who were making a valiant effort, with the shining example of the first group as their model. They had erase marks on paper, a look of determination and frustration on their brow, but they were faring “better” than the second group.

And so it goes: competition without really trying. I recall folks showing up with a number 2 pencil and believing that to be sufficient. It was and can be. But when they would see me with my set of pencils with designations from 4H to 4B, a pink pearl eraser and maybe a kneaded eraser; you could see that sense of self-esteem slip a bit. But I wasn’t the standard and truthfully, I was striving to reach the standard others were setting. I watched them, bodies relaxed, yet focused on the task, confidence shining like a silver knight’s armor. I wanted to be one of them.

I’m not sure if it’s the “times” or a movement that seems to be happening “right now,” but for me, my life is ordered by a higher direction. Certainly, I may look at the work of a Serge Kponton, or Matthew Ivan Cherry and think “I wish I could render the way he does,” but most of the time, I hear someone who seems to direct my work in other ways. I am not instructed to “do it just like him or her” but to allow my mind, my body and my soul to receive what is there and to render as He directs. It’s a beautiful thing!

My peers…they aren’t the standard any more. There is one who directs my steps and he is more than a standard; he’s my muse and spirit of abundance.