Monday, December 15, 2008

Hallelujah Rose! SOLD


There are two stories tonight. The rose has a story and the painting has a story.
Yesterday, my community choir had our Christmas Concert and I sang a solo. My husband had given tickets to a Chinese couple that he works with who are fairly new to the US. They were very interested in coming to the concert and drove about 40 miles to do so. After the concert they came up to me on stage and handed me a dozen roses. Totally unexpected. I was touched. Such a sweet gesture.
Last night, after my posting (and thanks to those who took the time to email with support) I had a hard time getting to sleep (I wonder why). I ended up sitting on the glider on my front porch, a favorite late night thing to do. I'm sitting there thinking about all the reasons I'm feeling down - not enough time, not enough money, too much stress, etc. – and I said to myself, "You know what the real problem is?"
"Who asked you to butt in," myself politely replied.
"The real problem," I said, "is that you need to stop trying to paint like someone else and start painting like yourself."
Boy, myself really hates it when I am right.
And I thought about the roses sitting in a vase on my table. "I should paint one" I thought. I've been putting off trying any flowers (just chicken), but it felt right to try. The hard part was waiting until tonight. Now I think I can start moving forward. Learn from the artists whose work I admire, get inspired by them, but don't try to imitate them.

2 comments:

Laurel Daniel said...

You chose just the right thing to do - to go back in and do it again. We all have moments like yours on the glider. Part of it is that the more we know, the more we know what we DON'T know... just keep painting what you love and loving the process. And keep that lovely rose as a reminder of that great talk with yourself!

Jala Pfaff said...

Everyone feels this way sometimes! Everyone. The only thing to do is just keep getting "back on the horse."