Beginner’s Mind

Beginner’s Mind is a term in Buddhist thought referring to how fresh “things” are to someone who is just beginning. I am a beginner when it comes to art (just completed my first online class)! Our society tends to laugh or look down at beginners. But when and how else are you to get good? You have to start at the beginning.

I love learning about basic lines and curves and putting them together to create art. Wow. I surrendered to it. I don’t judge. I just draw. Using Skillshare’s free classes (to start with), I took “Become a Pencil Ninja.” After completing it, my eye caught one of the feedback comments, “This is a perfect class for children.” I had to laugh…for children, indeed. I am a child when it comes to drawing.

Next up: a self portrait. This looks like it will be much more challenging!

face

Skillshare is pretty cool. You can teach classes as well ask take them. Check them out! Skillshare.com.

Apps Used to Stand for Appetizers

Apps have become so ubiquitous that we joke, “There’s an app for that.”

And yes, technology can help you achieve your goals and it can entertain you, but when it comes to creating art or work or works of art, there is no substitute for the consistent effort and focus on it.

Sitting under a tree, pondering nature all around you…that is how Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity. So legend has it.

Objective and careful observation of nature, our pets, our loved ones is how we will help society. Sustained effort for the greater good is what will be effective. Apps and other technology alone won’t do it.

Your Voice

The Internet is abuzz with information, commercials, stunts, and opinions. Much of it is not helpful. When cultivating your own platform for media, be strong in your voice, in your stances and in your intention.

Simply pursuing followers and fame will lead to an absence of good intentions and common sense. For example, Monalisa Perez shot her YouTuber boyfriend Pedro Luiz III through a book he was certain would stop the bullet.

It is far more sweet to own your tiny corner of authenticity than to walk the stage of fraud.

He(art)

“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”

Vincent Van Gogh

The voice might then say, “See? This is terrible!” But great work only comes from practice.

Stop procrastinating.

Creativity is the answer to all the “bad” in the world, because art is a culmination of love over time. It is optimism defeating pessimism.

The Key to Writing Great Fiction

paulo-brandao-1001

Photo by Paul Brandeo

“The very first thing I tell my students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth.”

Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird

The truth. It’s clear we want the truth, even in fiction. We can spot a lie within a fiction story instantly. That character would never do that! And then we get angry. Have you ever watched your favorite TV series and then someone does something completely out of character and it makes you so angry you quit watching? Ahhhh…for the love of ratings!

Great art is about presenting the truth. It has to come honestly from the heart, not from the desire to shock or manipulate emotions or increase your follower count.

Lamott emphasizes throughout her book the importance of allowing the characters to come to you and to reveal themselves to you. She cautions against inserting dialogue, action and plot that doesn’t emanate naturally from the characters. It will sound forced because it IS forced.

I’m not a painter, sculptor, photographer or actor, but I believe this philosophy pertains to all arts. As a famous sculptor once said,

“…a knot of wood or a block of marble made it seem that a figure was already enclosed there and my work consisted of breaking off all the rough stone that hid it from me”.”\

Auguste Rodin (The Guardian)

Observe. Wait. The truth will reveal itself.

Reverence is the Answer

“Let’s think of reverence as awe, as presence in and openness to the world.”

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

If you wake up grateful for the day – the sunshine, your comfy bed, your loved ones – and you continue this state of gratitude and presence, imagine how happy you would be.

Have you ever been sick with flu or had a broken bone and then realized you’ve recovered completely? Remember how happy you were just to be “back to normal?” This is gratitude and reverence and you can live in this light all the time, if you choose.

Know Thyself

“I didn’t want to open in town, because in town, they got too many rules. Out here, we ain’t got no rules.”

Robert “Bilbo” Walker, Founder of Wonderlight City (a juke joint)*

If you build it, they will come. Just build it to your specifications.

*From Great Big Story

On “Perfection”

On Perfection:

Elizabeth Gilbert, American Author

“Perfection is the death of all good things, perfection is the death of pleasure, it’s the death of productivity, it’s the death of efficiency, it’s the death of joy. Perfection is just a bludgeon that goes around murdering everything good. Somebody once said I was disingenuous for saying this, because surely I try to make my work as good as it can be. And that’s absolutely true — but there’s a really big difference between ‘as good as it can be’ and perfection.” – TED, September 2015

Instantaneous Inspiration

My friend and fellow chaperone was walking with me at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum in Washington D.C. We were in the aquatic section. He laughed, pointed at a fossil and said, “I think I’ve seen this in Star Wars.”

I laughed and realized that creators are most likely inspired and influenced by the strangest things!

“And this too!” He laughed. I could see exactly what he meant.

I imagined the designers and creators researching and studying ancient, strange creatures from millions of years ago. Maybe? Maybe not. But they were clearly inspired by the strange.

If you’re looking for inspiration, visit a musuem or an art gallery. Relax and enjoy yourself. Creativity is sure to reveal itself when you least expect it.

More Than One Way to Get There

Naturally, clarity of your life’s ambition will help you get there. But lucidity of your vision will also foster creativity and cultivate resilience. For example, I want to help people (children and adults) feel empowered and be the best they can be through my writing and teaching. I applied for a job that would have helped me reach even more (students) than the 90 I help now. I received a letter of rejection and felt pretty awful. Until…

I realized there are many other ways to achieve my ultimate goal. I’m excited and energized all over again. “Failing” is just another way to readjust your road.

As Robert Frost infamously wrote:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.*

His point: know that there are more ways to get there and whatever you choose, you’ll be just fine.

*from Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Less Traveled”

Kismet

Daily Practice

art