I came across this quote recently, and it really made me stop and think.
Excellence can be obtained
if you:
care
more than others think is wise.
risk
more than others think is safe
dream
more than others think is practical
expect
more than others think is possible.
~ author unknown,
(although I suspect it may be the words of some motivational speaker)
:0)
I'm more than happy to let go of striving for perfection. I'm certainly never going to do most things perfectly. Perfection is so subjective anyway. But excellence. That's something else. That's something I can work toward in life and art.
I already care, dream and expect a great deal, for myself and others. But risk - that's a tough one. When I started blogging, I think I really began to open up to risk more than ever before. I put my ideas and art out there, for better or worse, for all to see. So, yeah, I'm taking more and more risks, trying ever-more new things.
Spreading my wings. I'm even back on facebook.
When I started working on these three 4"x4" canvases, I thought it would be easy to quickly paint something on them and move on to something else.
Ha!
These little canvases had other ideas.
Interior Landscapes
textured abstracts
acrylic, found papers, oil pastel
on 4"x4"x1-3/8" wrapped canvas
For weeks, I kept returning to them.. Tweaking this. Covering up that. Trying something else.
But, man, did I learn things!
During the process, I found this quote:
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then,
is not an act,
but a habit.
~ Aristotle
(384 BC – 322 BC)
This is why I love quotes! I know some people don't like them, but I really, really do. When you find the right quote, at the right time, you know you're not alone. You don't have to recreate the wheel. Someone else has put your feelings into the right words for you already. You can say "YES!" or "AH HA!" and move on, knowing there are others out there who have felt and still feel just like you do.
So while my art will never be perfect, I will gladly devote the rest of my life to creating something excellent whenever possible.
After all, I also found this quote, just this morning;
Excellence
is not a skill.
It is an attitude.
~ Ralph Marston
Oh yeah!
