Eckhart Tolle instructs us to live in The Now. Artists do this when they are in the act of creating - we enter a timeless dimension when we connect to that deep coursing river, that sublime source that binds us all. That's on a good day. At other times we are unable to shut out the judging voice, the harsh, harping critic that tell us our work is crap and what the hell are we doing wasting our time goofing around in the studio anyway??I struggle with this all the while. There's a terrific book by Dan Millman titled The Life You Were Born to Live about a sort of numerology system, and in this system, I am a 29/11, which means Double Creativity and Confidence. According to Millman, the 29/11's life challenges center around low self-esteem regarding their huge creative energy. So here today is a bit of shameless horn tooting - more for me than for any of you wonderful and creative readers - to remind myself that I am "a very real artist," as one dear friend refers to me...because I do forget.
My self-portrait, Self with Lipstick, is in the book Drawing From Life, by Clint Brown and Cheryl McLean. I found out about this after the book was published when an acquaintance of mine who teaches drawing at USM alerted me to the fact that my drawing was in the text book he was using that semester. I'm still amazed at this. There's my name in the index in the very same column as Matisse and Michelangelo. Yo.
(Not that being in a book makes me a very real artist, but heck, as far as boosting confidence goes, it sure doesn't hurt!)
3 comments:
Rest assured, Martha, you are a very real and very top drawer artist!!
Congratulations on the drawing in the textbook. I like what he wrote about it. He should have asked for your permission to use it, though.
If you haven't read it, I recommend "My Stroke of Insight," by Jill Bolte Taylor. She is a neuroscientist who had a severe stroke at age 37, then through years of recovery gained much insight on right/left brain workings. What she discovered for herself relates to much of what Tolle describes, and to what artists try to tap into constantly.
'double creativity' I think describes what I see here all the time! - you have definitely got it going on and are a real inspiration to me - love the self portrait AND in a text book no less! congrats!
THANKYOU Don and Jeane! (Don. I'll check out Taylor's book - sounds great.) I so appreciate your feedback and support - you are two very remarkable artists - this is one of the big blessings of the blogworld, to have this support and connection between artists, don't you think?
xo
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