There Is No Key

I stare at the box of watercolor paper I just purchased and feel my resistance to dive in. I honestly don't know what I'm waiting for. Van Gogh said, "One becomes a painter by painting." So the minute one is in the act of creating, one is an artist. There is no becoming, you just are.

"What you need is to free yourself from your own

preconceived ideas about yourself. It will take a revolution to do it,

and many times you will think yourself on the road only to find

that the old habit has possessed you again with a new preconception.

But if you can at least to a degree free yourself,

take your head off your heart and give the latter a chance,

something may come of it.

The results will not be what you expect,

but they will be like you and will be the best

that can come from you.

There will be a lot more pleasure in the doing."

- Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

Okay, time to dive in.

Reality Check

My good friend Sonya Dunn started a blog last week on Blogger and when I went to check it out, lo and behold, I discovered that I had already signed up for a blog account...THREE YEARS AGO! I truly hate to admit this, but I think I have numerous blogs that are sitting out in cyberspace unattended to. The accounts are set up, but no content. Empty. Wow, what does that say? Have I really been that busy, forgetful, lame, or just fearful. I know it's not that I don't have anything to share, or at least want to share.

In any event, I guess 2010 is the year I begin. What do I want to share? My thoughts and struggles about being an artist. It's been hard to stake my claim to an artistic life. There are others that are certainly more talented, more productive, more educated, more...well, just more. But I have always loved visual art, ever since I saw Watson and the Shark at the Detroit Institute of Arts on a field trip in 5th grade. No, it was actually earlier then that. It was seeing beautiful oils of flowers that a friend of my grandfather's painted when I was about 4. I thought he was some kind of magician.

I am inspired by those who take the "beautiful," or the "ordinary," or the "ugly" and make you look at it in a way you never would. Perhaps if I start sharing about the process, I'll actually DO the process, that is to say, make art.