Art Takes Courage Courage to create without restraint. Courage to try something new you never dreamed you could do. Courage to push away from a project until more inspiration graces. Courage to return to a project and produce imperfection. Courage to share your imperfection with the world. Without courage, art hides in the shadows frightened …
The Power of Words
We promised it would never happen to us. That we’d lose our words, our voice, our passion to write. That we'd abandon our blogs and books that were well into their becoming...READ THE ENTIRE POST...
Lessons from a Tree
Did I lose my way because I didn’t write anymore, or did I stop writing because I lost my way? I mull these thoughts over in my mind as I sit in my favorite spot at the Apple Farm Inn in San Luis Obispo. I’ve come to the Apple Farm Inn year-after-year for our grown-up …
Life Branding: Focused Fresh Starts
There’s something special about the new year with its fresh starts and blank canvases. For a moment, you hear life’s urging to brush your dreams across the space of possibility. When possibility presents, you only have a brief amount of time to break from inertia and get into motion. Soon, everyday living will squeeze out motivation. …
The Ebb and Flow of Artistic Ambition
Every creative experiences the ebb and flow of artistic ambition. Whatever your creative expression is, you feel the phenomenon. One day you’ve got it—enthusiasm bubbles over and your art form flows. Then the unexpected happens. The desire, chutzpah, passion, or however you describe artistic ambition, evaporates until the once flowing stream becomes a dry riverbed. …
In Need of Grace to Paint and to Give
Why do I torture myself so? I ask myself this every time I start a new portrait. The beginning seems so easy: ideas grace the mind…an outline drawn…the hollow of a mystical person appears. But then it doesn’t take long for excitement to give way to feelings of helplessness as I enter into that dark space …
A Self-Imposed Silence
The morning sun creeps up the wall of cloudy blue until it peeks through branches. I sit in my art room in silence. Eyes squint from the glare of new beginnings, a day fresh with possibilities. I could fill these moments with music or ramblings of what I want, but the silence seems raw and …
THE TRAVELER: AN ACRYLIC PAINTING AND INSPIRATIONAL MESSAGE
Have you every felt like a lonely traveler on a sojourn through life—always searching yet never finding what will once and for all fill that empty ache in your heart? I sure have. Oh I’ve enjoyed moments, days, and even seasons of settled; those wonderful times when God’s grace seems so real you can wrap …
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New Refrain from the Identical Creativity Website
I wanted to let followers of this blog know that I had to shut down my former creativity website, Refrain from the Identical, due to hosting problems. I've launched the new website and will begin linking this blog to my new creativity website. The first post titled, Blossom, features my recent acrylic painting.
