“To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your life depends on it; and when the time comes, to let it go.”
~ Mary Oliver
Reading loobylu this morning, I was amazed when she spoke of the turning points in her creative life being reading “the artist’s way” and getting a wacom tablet.
why am i so amazed?
two days ago i got my first wacom tablet.
yesterday i began reading “the artist’s way.” just reading the introduction helped me shift something that helped me return my consciousness to the delights and flow of art.
yesterday in my studio, the best moments were watching washes of blue and purple paint trickle down my canvas. adding water and letting the water and paint create their own patterns. it felt so good to me, to forget about the whirrings of the mind and return to that state of wonderous delight in art.
last night, i took my sketchbook out and just doodled. followed the lines of one of my favourite cartoon illustration books, and contentedly flavoured it in leonie style. i felt so much joy at shading little dots onto cartoon girl’s skirt.
this is what being an artist is all about.
when you forget what it is to be an artist, and lose yourself in the dripping paint, the spots and the flavours. the little moments where you feel so much wonder, joy and delight in what you are creating and where you are RIGHT NOW. that’s when i know i am doing exactly what i was born to do. {i got warm chills when i wrote that}.
lush ~
:: the amazing swirly girl has touched my day today, just by reading her journal
:: a wonderful article on drumming
:: adventure through the lens with nahila
:: i’m making a quiet pledge to myself to try and do 52 figments. am loving this one.
“I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me… but it’s hard to stay mad, when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much – my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry… you will someday.”
~ Lester Burnham, “American Beauty”
