Show Up

Have you ever set out to do something new by trying to do it wrong—actually making mistakes? No? Me either. But mistakes happen.

For instance, in my artwork . . . .

Those of you who were kind enough to read the April edition of my newsletter, Paint Brush, might remember I’m taking an art class. It’s challenging. Almost daunting. Some days I feel like a demented monkey—trying this, that, and the other thing. And at the end of a long painting session, I step back, notice my mistakes, and say to Lucie, “This sucks.”

One of my mentors is an artist/author I’ve never met. His name is Brian Rutenberg. Brian is brilliant. He wrote, “An artist must make a lot of work and destroy all of it. The most important thing is to show up every day, no matter how dreadful the results. It’s okay to screw up; just do it gloriously. Then practice.” *

So I practice and practice some more. It takes courage to risk failure—make mistakes. But are mistakes, really mistakes? Nope. Mistakes are learning opportunities—in art and elsewhere. They are clues about what works and what doesn’t. They encourage us to experiment, contemplate, discover, improve, and move on.  

Salvador Dali once said, “Have no fear of perfection—you’ll never reach it.” Admittedly, I’m a recovering perfectionist, struggling to take my own advice—experiment, contemplate, discover, improve, and move on.

Being an artist isn’t a choice. It’s a passion. After all, an artist has the best gig on the planet—mistakes included.

I hope you’ll stick around to discover how I improve from my mistakes.

Judith And Lucie

Contemplate, improve, and move on