When I Paint...

"My Soul Is A Rainbow"
Print available at Zazzle.com/victoriart

When I paint there seems to be only a tiny part of me that knows what I am doing. Some quiet spark that I am barely aware of dancing in the back of my mind, in my gut, in the corner of my eye. It is very certain about what it wants, very confident that if I follow its instructions there will be some worthwhile outcome. The rest of me isn't so sure. A big splash of red there? Really? Well, okay.

There are numerous reasons why I started painting but I keep painting because I want to know that part of me better. I hope that by doing so I will learn to recognize it, listen to it and trust it in other areas of my life.

Always Make New Mistakes

I have a large magnet that hangs on the magnetic dry erase board above my easel that reads, in bold black letters, ALWAYS MAKE NEW MISTAKES. I bought it years ago and I'm not sure I anticipated what those words have come to mean to me now.

As a self taught artist, I make a lot of mistakes. Some of them I come to see as happy accidents, others are just accidents. When I make one of those kind of mistakes, it is easy to get discouraged. I have made a few of them lately, so that is just how I was feeling earlier today. Then I saw my magnet. ALWAYS MAKE NEW MISTAKES.

I did a quick inventory, were these new mistakes? Since I am working on a new project with different mediums than I am used to it was not hard to conclude that they were. Reflecting further, I was able to see how each mistake I have made has taught me how to better work with these mediums. It made me realize that making new mistakes was more or less an inevitable part of trying and learning new things.

In life, as well as in art, we are sometimes afraid to try new things for fear of making a mistake. ALWAYS MAKE NEW MISTAKES is a wonderfully liberating "SO WHAT?" in the face of that fear. ALWAYS MAKE NEW MISTAKES is a command that can remind us that as long as we are trying and learning new things, we are successful. In other words, as long as our mistakes are new, they are well worth making.

I Will Only Nurture My Finest Thoughts

I don't think anything limits us human beings more than our own fearful and negative thoughts. At the same time, I don't believe in policing our thoughts to the extent of eliminating all but the prettiest ones. There will be weeds in every garden no matter how vigilant we are. Trying to thwart them all just robs us of the energy we need to plant the positive seeds and nurture them to their fullest potential.

"I Will Only Nurture My Finest Thoughts" By Victoria Lynn Hall - available on a poster, full bleed print or greeting card at zazzle.com/victoriart