do work

It isn't enough to want to make it. I know countless people who had great desires to 'be' something. The problem is in order to 'Be', you have to 'Do'. Some would disagree with me. I would argue that if you want to just be, than yes, you can sit under a tree waiting for divination, however if you have ambitions then you have to get off your butt and do.

There are days where I don't want to draw. I don't have an idea to work on. Often when that happens I try and force the issue, even if it is just a ten minute interlude of something creative. Sometimes good art starts from that nugget of time. Many times I just slog through it then relinquish to the lack of focus. I truly believe that forcing even that ten minutes pays long term dividends. It makes me stay on track. It keeps me from putting off goals for tomorrow. Just that simple act of forcing myself to work for ten minutes on a day I don't feel like it, helps me to see that I am chipping away at a bigger objective.

Have you ever either A) wanted to get into an exercise regimen, or B) wanted to get back into shape? Did you think that the hardest part was starting? If so, than what I am suggesting buys into the logic that if you keep moving, even just a little bit, it is easier to stay moving. Call it one of the laws of motion. Call it determination. Whatever you call it, this simple act will be one of the most important skills to help you make your dreams come true.

olympics and art

I don't know if you got caught up in Olympic fever but although I am not a big pro sports watcher, I do get sucked into the Olympics. After 16 days of winter sports extravaganza my evenings are now free again to work on art that I don't get done during the day. However I can't help myself and have to do one blog posting about how I found the Olympians similar to artists.

After watching the athletes compete it occurred to me that we share some similarities. First off, these people train and pour themselves into their sport. Most of them do NOT get paid to be a world class curler, or a world class biathalete. No they hold a day job, and then they spend hours after work, weekends, before work committed to their love. Many will spend countless hours devoted to improving their game for the hope to compete, not even making the team.

This reminds me of being a professional artist. How many of us toil away at night on art that doesn't have a buyer? How often have you poured your soul into something, submitted it, and gotten rejected? But what do we do? We keep going. We are not unlike the Olympians who give it their all, then crash and burn on some extreme slope. We get back up, battered and bruised, and make more art. Granted we don't risk life and limb, but we put our families in jeopardy by NOT holding that stable job so that we can take a risk, to be great at what we love. Some of us will be gold medalists, we will get a big payout. But most of us don't make it to the medal stand. We work just as hard but be it bad luck, bad timing, or not having that extra something, we end up world class, but unknown to most.

Here's to ALL the Olympians, gold medals or not. And here's to YOU artists, who keep drawing, keep painting, keep submitting.