Find Your Something
What feeds you on an emotional level? It’s an odd question, I know. But really, what can you do that has a calming effect on your mental well-being while at the same time shrinking your world to a place where you begin to open up? I’m talking about you! Not something you do because someone else wants you to, but because you want to do it.
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The reference photo for this watercolor and ink painting was taken outside the birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci in Anchiano, Italy. A few months ago, I would have never thought of painting or sketching from one of my photographs. To suggest I share anything I work with is something I would consider to be absurd. But why?
As foolish as it sounds, I believed I needed someone’s permission to post anything I was working on. I was stuck in a place where I couldn’t even feel my voice.
“It is not about finding your voice it’s about giving yourself permission to use your voice.”
Kris Carr
There are so many keywords to plug in here. Fear, not good enough, I suck, don’t quit your day job, they will laugh, I should cut the grass instead, etc. The only one I can justify here is quitting my day job. I’m retired now so that one was easy.
We don’t see Monet’s, Van Gogh’s, Dali’s, or any of these masters’ first works. They didn’t have refrigerators to hang those early pieces on. I am not suggesting I fall in line with these guys at all. I am saying that no matter who we are, there has to be a beginning, and you will never find your voice if you don’t use it.
“You can’t be content with mastery; you have to push yourself to become a student again.”
Austin Kleon
Indeed! Becoming a student again can be a hard model to grasp when you’re an adult. You think you can cheat the system and graduate from advanced learning without using your crayons to get started. You want to create a masterpiece without learning how to scribble!
“With rare exceptions, we become who we become as artists because we are influenced by other artists, not despite that fact. No idea is completely original, and being influenced by the work of other creative people and movements is part of the process of finding your voice.”
Lisa Congdon
Document your journey. Get a really big refrigerator and a handful of magnets. Display your work and measure your success by the improvements in what you see and not the words of your critics, even when you worst critic is you!
“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.”
Mary Lou Cook
Talk soon…
G