drawing quote of the day- keith haring

be grateful

five minutes here, five minutes there

so today's quote of the day was:

"A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art." -- Paul Cezanne

And since i'm working in my sketchbook, doing simply drawings and watercolours paintings of sunflowers, dragonflies, and lotus flowers...i ask myself...are these really art?

In college, i grew to understand that part of the art is the emotion or idea the work conveys, and not the skill behind it...when something just matches your couch, it isn't necessarily "Art" so much as "design"...

i struggled with this idea for a long time...in fact, it really caused me to shut down artisticly for a while...i felt like i couldn't please anyone with my work...if i tried to make it too thought provoking people didn't like it...and if i made it simply something nice to look at, others didn't like it...there was no satisfying anyone...

but i also came to understand, that this is just LIFE....

that no matter what you do, there will always be critics...and what is important, in the end, is you own sense of satisfaction...

Did you do your best? Are you happy with your work? Did you accomplish your goal?

In the last year, these questions are the only thing that have helped me keep going. 

So when i paint flowers, dragonflies...yes, they are simple....but they give me joy...they give me five minutes to breathe...and they are part of my meditation...part of my connection with the universe.

When i look at nature, i am awed...flowers, and insects are incredibly amazing...and i think too many people don't take the time to observe the nature and the world around them...

Thinking about how a sunflower starts from a seed and becomes a towering heavy-headed beauty full of geometric design and intricate petals, is just amazing...absolutely amazing...

So, when i work in my sketchbook, i'm not sure what emotion i want to evoke or base my work on...but amazement is what i have in mind....

a peak into my sketchbook

"work is love made visible" Kahlil Gibran

this is what happens when i get a few minutes of quiet time...i get to draw...nothing extensive...nothing complicated...just simple drawing for the sake of drawing...nothing more, nothing less...It is in the simplicity that comes the joy, the sense of satisfaction that i was able to do the work that gives me joy..

quote of the day

“It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come.” HH the Dalai Lama

quote of the day

Your life is right now! It's not later! It's not in that time of retirement. It's not when the lover gets here. It's not when you've moved into the new house. It's not when you get the better job. Your life is right now. It will always be right now. You might as well decide to start enjoying your life right now, because it's not ever going to get better than right now—until it gets better right now!

--- Abraham (Hicks:)

quote of the day

‎"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

-Steve Jobs

quote of the day

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. You're playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

- Marianne Williamson

What does it mean "to live?"

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." ~ Oscar Wilde

garden wisdom

Yesterday I went to visit my family in East Texas. This is where I grew up. I always seem to come away with something to think about.

Right now i am thinking about something my father said to me while picking okra. I wasn't sure at what point he wanted it to be picked. I was worried i was picking it too early. What if he wanted it to grow a bit more? when i asked him he said, "oh you gotta just pick it. If you leave it too long the plant stop producing. It quits growing. It thinks it has fullfilled its' purpose."

"it thinks it has fullfilled its' purpose if you don't pick the fruits of its' labor"......

I have been thinking about this all night...and how it applies to life...family, artwork, children...

I was thinking about how important it is to allow people to grow, to allow them to produce not only good fruits, but to encourage it by accepting the gifts they present to you and the world. How, when these gifts, fruits, aren't acknowledged, this is the same thing as discouraging growth...

How often do we do this to ourselves?
How often do we do this to each other?

Was there something you wanted to do in life that you didn't feel encouraged about and let it go? And if so, why are you waiting for someone else to encourage you?  Why not just encourage yourself? Yeah I know the concept of picking your own fruit, when you think about it in terms of plants...well, it doesn't really work...but in life, there comes a point, when you just have to either decide to stop growing or move forward, discard the old fruit and move on to make more.

How can I apply this to my artwork?

For me, I can get hung up in the past or the negative words of others very easily. Especially when it comes to artwork. Thinking of old projects, old critiques, old artists I knew in the past....and all that does is hang me up...when really I just need to move forward. Pluck the old fruit and give it away.  Moving forward allows my work to change and evolve with me. I'd like to think I am better today than I was in the past, but maybe not. And my artwork certainly isn't the same as it was 15 years ago, and that is ok. My artistic goals aren't the same. And that is ok too.

What it comes down to, is, as an artist, do you want to stay stagnant? Do you want to stay in the past with your work? Or do you want o move forward? Is your purpose fulfilled? If not, what is next?

daily quote

“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. "

Aristotle