30 Paintings in 30 days - Day 2

"Return to Flamingo Garden" - Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas,  16 x 12 x 1.5.  Ready to hang.  Available on Artfinder.


[Scene: Farmhouse]

Buttercup: I fear I'll never see you again.

Westley: Of course you will.

Buttercup: But what if something happens to you?

Westley: Hear this now: I will always come for you.

Buttercup: But how can you be sure?

Westley: This is True Love. You think this happens every day??
                    from The Princess Bride

​

(A little cheating here, as I am teaching a workshop today.  True confession - this piece was painted last week.  Don't look at that man behind the curtain!)

Oh Flamingo, how I feared I would never see you again!

But then there was a commission request, and of course I had to make a small version again before I could make a large one...and re-creating my own work is challenging because I want to keep changing it.  But here it is, the third flamingo, sassy and ready to rumba.  I have flamingos on the brain now. 

The conversation between Buttercup and Westley in today's scene could be verbatim the daily dialogue between me and the muse.  Every day, I fear I will never see inspiration again.  And then inspiration appears when I show up in the studio.  And the next day I ask the same question, and the muse appears again.  It is a little dance we do.  I like to think the muse finds it amusing (pun intended).

And don't we worry about things like that?  What if something happens to our (insert a variety of important words here - inspiration, motivation, dedication, aspiration, education, inclination, next vacation) - what then?   I think if we show up for what we hold dear, it will appear. Maybe not immediately.  But if we step toward whatever it is with confidence, it will always come for us eventually.  

Of course, it is best not to worry at all.  And that requires being fully present.  There are a lot of ways to approach presence...a lot of advice, wisdom and suggestions.  But one struck me right in the face this week during a conversation with a new member of the local art tribe.  She posed the question "who are you when you're not looking?"  Whoa.  Now that requires full immersion in whatever you're doing, to not even be looking at you.  So the bar has been set for the measurement of being present.  Now off you go.  Westley awaits.