A thought for a Tuesday

One day, when I was in my mid-thirties, I decided I wanted to become an artist, knowing that if I wanted to be an artist bad enough, I would become one. So I gathered up what an novice artist would need and began my quest. First, I took an art class from a good friend who patiently taught me many things about putting paint on a canvas. Then when my husband and I moved to Santa Clara, I found that Dale Parson's was an art teacher at Dixie State College so I registered, and my artist's education continued. I learned as I watched and listened and practiced the art.

One day Dale gave the class some very timely advice. He said, "Sometimes I work on a face for hours, leaving it only when I think I've got it right. then, the next morning I may get up and take a look at it and start over, again." He added, "Know that even the greatest artists don't always get it right the first time. So remember you never stop learning. You never know it all no matter how may years you've been painting.

I've never forgotten his advice. Instead, I let it guide me, and I ask myself if we as authors and artists were to reach perfection in our work would we loose the desire for the art? Isn't it the challange and the stretch which awakens the creativity and the curiosity inside us that remains the driving force behind the desire to write or to paint? Isn't it the path we've chosen that takes us on the ever winding journey of imagination . . . a journey we pray will never end?

So While I'm striving for perfection, I'll not be in too big of a hurry to reach it, striving instead only to improve the gift with each challenge with each painting . . . with each novel . . . with each song.

Before I sign off, I have to share this poem my little granddaughter send to me.

There once was a bee who lived in a tree,
And then met a very nice flea.
They played all day in the hay,
and then they broke their knees,

It is a young imagination at work, is it not!!

Have a good day