Tuesday, March 22, 2011

PROGRESS REPORT


It has been 2 months since I began this blog, and I must remind myself of why I started...to encourage the creative process and progress in my amount and quality of painting.
I am pleased with part of my progress...I see where I am being creative.  I am starting to find out WHEN I am at my most productive, so that I can start to structure my days better.  However, I can also see that I am leaning heavily on past creations, and need to step up my productivity a LOT!  I don't know how any of you out there do it!  Are you focused, and schedule your day?  Do you tune out the distractions? This is where I really fall down as an artist.  The truly obsessed artists that I know are constantly trying new things, are excited about what is coming next, and can't NOT create.  I still find myself at that tentative stage...afraid of greeting that blank canvas, and not really sure what I want to paint, or communicate.
I was told by a long-time artist and teacher that if I don't communicate with the viewer, I am wasting my time,  and my painting is a failure no matter how pretty it is.  That stopped me dead in my tracks for weeks! 
So I will focus on the positive points...I have learned so much the past 2 months of blogging, and feel that I am on the brink of a real breakthrough in my art.  I am starting to understand what I want to accomplish visually, what I want to say with my art, and where I want to go with it.  That is a 30 year bonanza in my mind!  Knowing that I can blog it out, put it down in words as well as pictures is helping everything to come together. 
I look for great things ahead...or a lot of little things.  Progress is progress!

"I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship."
                                                             ---Louisa May Alcott

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