Lyric Kinard recently posted a really lovely book review of Journal Spilling on her blog. Lyric asks what "it" is that we are afraid of? There is a lovely list of comments over there that you want to read. Really. You want to read them and add some to them. This is an excellent pool of comfort. Fear of sketching, of the blank page, of stepping out of our comfort zones. I really related to the comments about "wasting" materials and the need to produce rather than play.
You might remember Lyric from my recent spotlight here and book review of her excellent book, Art + Quilt. Lyric and I are definitely on the same page (no pun) in our passion for teaching and encouraging creativity. She's got a shoe-painting thing going on lately. Check out her latest paint job, above.
One of my favorite lines from the Comments is this one from Rhobotic:
Failure is not an option; it is a necessity.
(amen)
(amen)
New nudge tomorrow. I'm inspire to post them weekly!
3 comments:
I just picked up and started looking through your book! I have been reading a lot lately about we should be calling ourselves "artists". Not comfortable with that and it was like a great weight was lifted when you stated to forget those lables of what you are and instead be a person who enjoys making art/writing. That felt comfortable. When I checked out your blog just now and saw your nudge idea, I was so excited. I hope to be a part of the next one.
Failure!!! I'm beginning to love the word. You can't get anywhere on the road to where you want to be unless you take that first scary step. Sometimes -I prefer to call my failures interesting detours that lead you to a more interesting place than you thought you were headed.
In the short time I've been art journaling, I've come to love my failures. As one who felt as if each little misstep was an indication of my complete inadequacy, that's quite an accomplishment for such a short time. I used to throw my hands up and wail about how I was just "no good!" at (insert activity here) and the failure was proof of that. It gave me permission to give up. Now "failures" give me the permission to move on and to discover not only new ways of doing things, but new ways of forgiving myself.
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