"Paintings With Personality"

I’m sitting in my living room alternately writing and looking out the window letting my mind wander. When looking out the window, I see a beautiful, frozen world, resulting from last night’s ice storm. Honey has already been outside to spread salt on the driveway. He’s hoping the salt will melt the ice before tonight’s expected snowfall and makes a bad situation even worse.

The ice, snow and the watercolor I am currently working on made me think about our trip to Peru last September. It was early fall when we left the United States and a few hours later, when we got to Peru, late winter. That seemingly mysterious phenomenon occurred because we crossed the equator during our flight.  Peru, in late winter, was “hot as the dickens” rather than cold and frozen.

From the Amazon River, we visited a place called Tree House. It was actually a hotel in the jungle canopy. The rooms resembled bird feeders with human beds and bathrooms. They were open all the way around and enclosed by screens to keep the bugs out and curtains that could be pulled closed for privacy. http://treehouselodge.com

We got to the first room by climbing seventy feet of stairs that wound around an enormous tree. The rooms were connected by long swinging foot bridges and pretty scary, if I do say so myself. No more than three people could be on a bridge at one time and they had to stay at least five feet apart. I admit to having a “tiny” panicky feeling about halfway across the first bridge where it trembled a little more than it had on the ends. I had to completely close off my mind (which was telling me to stop because what I was doing was really dumb, and impossible) and keep going. By continuing, just putting one foot in front of the other, I was soon able to look over the sides of the bridge down to the treetops below me. It was an amazing adventure that my fear could have made me miss.

Artists often encounter the same situation. They want to soar to the heights of the art world, but are afraid of what they will have to sacrifice to get there. Or if after forfeiting so much if they will even make it to the top, so why not just sit back and be comfortable.

Let’s say some painters overcome that fear, try,  and actually make it to the top but once there, they are afraid to step out on the bridge, so they stay there in our comfortable little room at the top of the art ladder.

Eventually they might take a few steps out on the bridge, but do they go all the way across and look over the side? Do they explore all the exciting possibilities available? Some painters stay stuck in their comfort zones and never venture any further. They don’t keep studying and learning. Their families and non-artist friends complement their work and even buy it, but that doesn’t make it the best they can do. Too many people paint just to do shows and hear someone say “your work is great”.

My challenge to you, and to myself is to take more steps and keep going, no matter what the obstacles. Be the creative imaginative self you were meant to be.

What have you done to step a little further up the ladder? Let me know your creative experiments and I’ll try them too. Please comment below.

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