This happened the other night in my new art journal. My husband and I were sitting in the same double-wide Lazy-Boy chair as we often do watching a boring movie and I'm staring at a blank page with my little watercolor set handy. So, I begin to play with abstract imagery. But my darling farmer needs it to be something. We discuss why that is necessary "that it be something" for the sake of interesting conversation. He sees a horse.. maybe a horse with wings. It wasn't long before I wanted him to see the horse so I begin to manipulate the drawing with him saying, "no, here", "no there".. "it should have...." and there it went. And it was an interesting collaboration to say the least. But, I was having so much fun his fingers began to itch. So I handed him a blank page because I swear there is a frustrated artist inside the man just waiting to be let out. But, it vanished as he began to describe what he could do... if he did do....... we all know the feeling. One time, long ago, I know there was a child artist in him that didn't care about making mistakes or being perfect, but just drawing and painting for the sheer love of it. But for the life of me, I haven't been able to coax him out to play. Except to hand me colors for my own coloring book.But it does beg the question: where in own lives do we lock our own grown selves up in comfort zones afraid to venture out to play just in case we ran into that bully named Fear of Failure?
11 comments:
I right away saw two horses here ... maybe one is him and one is you :) .... I love the action and racing quality this piece has - they're neck and neck you know! Maybe if you just blindfold him and stick his hands in paint and give him a big sheet of paper ... it would be like leading a child to fingerpainting - who could resist?
(also: thank you for your recent kind words)
i see the horses too.
and? is that "fear of failure" on the back of one of them getting ready to be buckled off?
(my son, when he was 6, got bucked off by a horse and always refers to it as "being buckled")
Me too. I immediately saw horses. This is really excellent. Maybe this is an avenue you really need to explore more. There's such a sense of energy and chaos as if the horse is galloping.
Great work and I like your color palette on this also.
Vikki
Yup, horses- love "the bully named FEAR" That's it exactly! Beautiful blog!
You're so right about "fear of failure" being a bully. The fear can be paralyzing and deadly to creativity.
I see them, too! Great colors and it reminds me of 'freedom'! Thanks for sharing!
Love your horse or is it two horses?
And agree about trying to draw out the artist from the DH! I have been doing that for years and yet to succeed...he says he's artistic in his OWN way, lol!
So what kind of watercolor set do you work with when you're sitting down watching TV? By the time I get paint and brushes and water together, it's a major affair! Help please! I love how water color comes out. Mark wants to play!
I see two horses, definitely! but I also see a man on one of them, a strong man, ninja looking kind of man. Mysterious kind of man. I see a couple of swords and Japanese or Chinese like symbols. I certainly see a battle more than a race. The strong man has a shield of some sort.... and now I'm reading what I just wrote and I think I might need a shrink??...
I love the colors and I love the energy reflected on the painting!
I love this post's title! My husband's been hauling manure for the past few days.....
This is quite a post - and quite an interesting sketch. I liked the poem on the next post, as well - the cowboy sketch post. Both that and this are about not staying in our comfort zones where we can be "perfect" but venturing out and stumbling around as necessary to get somewhere new. I've got to get off my rear end and get more bold, too.
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