This morning I read a post by Jennifer Boykin. (I follow her blog – she's really quite intuitive in a way I connect with) Her blog name, Life After Tampons, causes a few smiles, but it's the tag line that hits me where I need it to – "Quit your bitching – change your life." Blunt and to the point. I need that.
In her posts Jennifer always includes a "tweetable" line. In this post it was:
"What are you doing that contributes to the broken part of your life?"
The rest of the post encouraged us readers to take a hard look in the mirror and answer that with complete truth. (Notice she says what are YOU doing, not what are OTHERS doing to you.)
It just so happened that yesterday morning, before I embarked upon my jaunt to Boston, I had one of those moments. My head is always filled with visions of who I want to be, what I want to accomplish, and how I'm going to get there. My artwork is something I always longed to perfect and get better at. With this illustrating project, that is even more important to do now. Modeling my illustrator friend, Lynne Chapman, gave me some ideas as to what I'm supposed to be doing. One thing she does is carry a sketchbook and sketch everywhere. Her quick sketches look like major pieces of art – especially the people. They look like portraits that took hours instead of minutes. I read her blog and she describes how she passes time on the train sketching people around her. That idea stuck in my head all week and yesterday morning the thought crossed my mind that I should take a sketchbook with me on the train. No…..I'm not that good. I can't sketch on a train ride. Forget that idea. Then I packed my tiny travel bag.
While packing my bag, I thought to myself that this is how I sabotage my road to getting better at something. I let fear and doubt creep in and ultimately what needs to get done, which is PRACTICE, I effectively put an end to. Right there I realized just what Jennifer's "tweetable" meant – here is how I contribute to the broken parts of my life.
I'm happy to say that that my actions preceded the blog. I stopped packing the little bag. Thought about my pocket sized sketchbook that I never used, sitting in a drawer, and switched bags. I dug out the sketchbook and pencil, packed them and told myself I didn't have to actually use them. Sitting on the train they were burning a hole in my bag by the time the train started moving. It's an hour to Boston, but what I didn't realize that in this trip we ride 5 minutes to Plymouth and sit on the train for 35 minutes. We were sitting there and I thought at first we were broken down. Then I got to thinking, the train left at ten, but I'm not getting to Boston until almost twelve. Did I read the schedule wrong? I checked it on my phone and sure enough it's right on the schedule – we sit for over half an hour in Plymouth. Well, that was enough to push me to get out the sketchbook and sketch the random guy sleeping across the isle.
Again, I surprised myself. I was able to quickly sketch a live person on a moving train, in a short time, and have it resemble a person. I now know I need to get into the habit of sketching something random everyday to build the small skills in shading and perspective that can only be acquired through practice.
It's great motivation to visualize something, but it's quite another to commit to actions needed to bring it to fruition. You would think writing this blog everyday to perfect my writing would make that concept easily transferable. No. Not with me. That's why I love Jennifer's blog with her blunt punch line. Here's the link so you can check it out:
Life After Tampons – Do You Conspire Against Yourself?
And so, as another day goes by, before I do another thing I'm grabbing the sketchbook and quickly sketching the snowman in front of me, and….I have written.
Photo: sketch of Random Sleeping Guy
Below: These really helped drive the sketchbook point home !
Love this! That negative inner voice is only a suggestion from the past. Your heart knows the truth.