Follow your Passion

 This morning, I asked my partner how he used to cope in the music business (he was a jazz drummer) when he would hear something that another drummer was playing and it would hit him right in the gut and take his breathe away and he would possibly think to himself... that is what I want to play like and I want people to feel the same as I do when they hear me playing drums? 

I wanted to know what he did with that? 

How do you process that?

He said he had experienced that many times, so I was all ears, ready to listen to his response. 

The reason I asked this question was because I had been caught out yet again. Defeated and depleted by the fact that another artist is painting the way I long to paint but I don't know how!

For me, the emotional roller-coaster goes something like this....

I see an artwork that takes my breath away because I love it and I want to get up close and know how to create it, but I don't know how? I ramble on to myself...

"Oh my God, look at that, how did she do that? Oh I love it-it makes me want to cry- I need to know how that is done - I want to buy it so that I can touch it, so I can see how the textures have been created. Could I afford it? Which one would I choose? I want the one that looks the best and has the most interest, damn I can't afford that! Oh why can't I do that? I wish I could work out how. She is so lucky to have learned how.  She has her own style, she has a cohesive theme or thread running through all her artwork and she has developed her own style. How does that happen?, Do I lack the education? Haven't I practiced enough? Could I do a class with her? Would she reveal the secrets that are hers? Damn she lives in America! Damn! I'm jealous- this is so out of reach, and what is the point of me trying to do something  that has already been done perfectly and so on and so on.

My emotional response and gut reaction simmer down to a lamentation, an emptiness, as though I'm not in my own body...thats probably 'cos I astral travelled into her studio, into her body! My body in the here and now slumps back into the reality of how far away I am from achieving what I want and what is in my heart. A bit melodramatic I know, but hey, I am an artist!

My partners advice:

1.  Find out as much information as you can about the artist and more importantly how that piece of art has been created.

2. Ask yourself what it is you love about the painting and why?

3. What tools and materials have been used to get the effect you are seeing? How was it made? 

4. Then do your best to copy it until you have something similar. Try to get it as close as possible to the same thing.

So, I am all fired up now about this favourite artist of mine who works with cold wax and oils.  I know a little but not enough, so I have some research and loads of practice to do!

    

   "Sewing on the backside of the Moon"  by Jeane Myer

                   "Sitting in the North" by Jeane Myer