To Art, or Not to Art

Some friends of mine planned to swap some Artist Trading Cards.  So I spent some time painting little with sparrows on 2"x3" watercolor paper cards.   I had worked on them a full hour without really seeing much to show for it.  In fact, I had three awful paintings which made me begin to regret it as "time wasted".

I caught myself, however, and realized that I rarely allow (or push) myself to take the time to explore art for art’s sake: drawing, sketching, etc...  It makes no sense, because I really do need to continually hone art skills.  But instead, I only give myself permission to do "major art".  No "minor art" is allowed. 

One feeds the other. They go hand in hand.  I need them both.  

As a great example of this truth, I just read the blog post of my friend Pedro Lawrence about running the Chicago marathon. (You can see more here: run free pedro) It was so inspiring to see his dedication, difficulties, and achievements.  It would be pretty dumb if he planned to do a marathon, but never prepared for it.  It takes dedication and determination far in advance to run all of the miles that prepare a runner to be able to run all of the miles in a marathon.  For Pedro, he has to do the “minor” running to succeed in the “major” running. (And succeed he did!)

So,  for my future success, I must do those things that are hard to give myself “permission” to do.  The “being” kinds of things, the “becoming” kinds of things, the things that, in the end,  will grow, form and shape me.  

I walked back into the studio and pushed through to finish the first three sparrows and go on to make a few more.  In the end, I loved them all, and I am the better for having painted them.