My friend, Sharon Weaver, is really a marvelous artist. (www.SharonWeaver.com) She recently won first prize in The Valley Artists Guild show, for a stunning studio piece featuring the Monterey coastline. When I congratulated her on the win, she told me the story of how when she had been working on this winning piece, she had become so frustrated that she actually put her brush right through the canvas, ruining both brush and canvas. What followed, though, was something she regarded as a "breakthrough" in her painting, and her new approach was noticed and honored by the juror.
Maybe it's important to allow our frustration to surface once in a while... I'm not advocating we regularly destroy our tools, but I think my friend, who's normally quite refined and self controlled, just hit a "wall" that she had to tear down, and needed to do something symbolic in order to accomplish that.
This wouldn't be the kind of thing you could ever plan or stage: that wouldn't be authentic or help anyone to grow. But if we were to be more aware of our own frustration creeping in, and maybe give it a little bit of space; if we were look our frustration squarely in the eye when it occurred, instead of bulldozing right over it, perhaps we would understand and learn and be able to allow "breakthrough" moments of our own.
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Thank you Diane! I've told my kids for years that frustration is a sign of a need for change. I find it very uncomfortable but good to recognize. It's a sign of artistic growth to come.
ReplyDeleteGuess the term "growing pains" applies here, doesn't it, MG?
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