I subscribe to a newsletter by painter Robert Glenn. He's a 2-D painter, but I find many of the issues he writes about are common (and useful) for all creative people.
This week's topic was "One to Another". Here is the segment that caught my attention:
"Like a lot of us I get quite a few calls from beginning artists
in need of advice. Sometimes it starts off with a technical
question that leads to larger, more motivational questions.
Yesterday a neighbor lady, Carmen, phoned and wanted "general,
overall mentoring" leading to "guidance on what she wanted to
do." She had painted part of a painting that very morning and
wondered if she could bring it over. I gave my usual: "Paint a
hundred more and then bring them over."
This letter is dedicated to the Carmens of this world. There's
a singular habit you need to develop. You need to build a
regular productive rhythm that explores your own doing. It's
going to be a bit like chain-smoking--you use the last one to
light up the next. But unlike a production line where all the
products are the same--this conveyor belt will only exist in
order to show development, variation, possibilities."
I LOVE this one!
Why? I'm getting to a point where people ask me for professional advice. The hardest lesson I've learned from all this is....people have to be ready to move on before they can even hear what you have to say to them.
So his line, "Now go and make a hundred of 'em" is so true, for two reasons. One, it makes you explore your path to see if there's something there AND if you want to be on it. And two, because whether you make $$ on it or no, if it's important enough for you to do a hundred times, then it should be in your life (in one form or another) anyway.
Have a great weekend, and today be sure to tell someone important in your life what they mean to you.
