Losing Your Mojo

Journal sketch

I lost my mojo. It was days with nothing and terrible paintings and no, none, zippo, nada inspiration. I felt a little lost. But I painted anyway. Those MEAN critical voices that tell you you can't paint, that you know nothing about composition, color, that you have no originality, that your stuck, that your boring, etc. got loud and louder. But I painted anyway.

One of my fav art books is "The Art Spirit", the collected words by Robert Henri. He said,

Your education must be self-education. Self-education is an effort to free one's course so that a full growth my be attained. One need not be afraid of what this full growth may become. Give your throat a chance to sing its song. All the knowledge in the world to which you have access is yours to use. Give yourself plenty of canvas room, plenty of paint room. Don't bother with originality, set yourself just as free as you can and your originality will take care of you.It will be as much a surprise to you as to anyone else. Originality cannot be preconceived, and any effort to coddle it is to pre-conceive it, and thereby destroy it. Learn all you can, get all the information that is within your reach about the ways and means to paint.

And I was set free again of the VOICES. I found my joy in the process again.

I painted knowing that I might paint over it, that I might hate it, and that the only good thing I did that day was LEARN something more about paint and texture and color and composition.

And Life. Goodness sake. Even when we're making a mess, getting it wrong, bullied by the critics, nothing's jivin, no mojo anywhere around - it's still just one more day toward getting it right.

We're okay.



No. 18 She Speaks For Herself



No regrets.