Staring at the canvas, she stands there trying to determine her next move. Does it need a different color? Would more texture help? Am I even going in the right direction on this?
Back into the painting she goes and with each brush, the picture changes and grows. Her face will go from confused to determined, from frustrated to elated. And finally, after countless hours, she’s ready to sign her name signifying the art is now done.
In watching this, a few things jump out at me…
There are times when looking at the canvas, she has no idea what will happen. Looking at the journey in this life, I can relate to that. No idea – just countless possibilities.
There are times when working on the art, she takes a drastic turn and the entire piece takes on a whole new direction. When that happens, the frustration can set in for a moment, but then all of the sudden major breakthroughs in the work come flooding to her. Similarly, we can experience changes that create a new direction in our journey, both in this lifestyle and our life in general. Embracing these changes in course can bring about an acceleration of who we are becoming, painting the art that is our life.
She will not sign it until she knows the work is done. Its not until then that she feels like she can claim it as her work. If there are still things to add, changes to make, she will continue to work and at times painfully pull out the newest vision in her head. I totally get this, as my own journey reminds me that the work continues to change and morph, and that until we get to the end of our journey, we continue to grow and we never know everything.
Oops! Sometimes, she grabs the wrong color or the wrong brush. Sometimes the canvas moves or the paint bleeds to the wrong area. But rather than throw the whole thing out, she finds ways to work with the mistake. She can turn that mistake into a feature, or find either ways to build off of that mistake so that it is never even seen or noticed. I can’t help but remember all the mistakes I have made in life and in my own journey. Some mistakes have made me want to simply run and hide, packing it all in and throwing it all away. And I almost did. But I have learned to embrace the mistakes, learn from them and use them to adapt who I am, what I do and what I expect. In time, some of those mistakes become concealed, not because I am trying to hide them – but because I have worked with them to make myself even better.
Often times, when she is done, she will tell me how this piece changed so much from the original thought. In some cases, it may have started in one place and arrived at a completely different destination – and that without having that starting point, she would have never thought about the final point. Without the mistakes, it would not be the same in the end. This reminds me that while we may have an idea of what we think we want, but through the experiences we have, both good and bad, we may never truly find the absolute beauty in the art of our lives without those experiences and the changes they have forced. In all likelihood, we will end up in a totally unexpected place and be so very thankful for it.
Life and art often imitate each other, and its great when we can learn lessons to be applied to both.
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