I have to politely and respectfully disagree with those of you that say you aren’t artists, can’t draw, and leave the art to other members of your family or friends. You say you’re just “not artistic,” or “can’t draw a straight line.” My mother used to teach art, to members of Girl Scout troops, or people that came into her ceramic store to work on projects. Most of these people didn’t think they had any talent. She’d show them that they all had talent, each in their own unique way. There aren’t very many straight lines in nature, or for that matter, anywhere. And art isn’t about straight lines anyway.
I was taking notes while I was reading “Trust the Process” by McNiff; I ended up with 3 or 4 pages of the author’s thoughts. I’ll share some with you, in an effort to change your mind, or at least sway it a bit toward realizing the art each of you has inside.
- “The empty space is the great horror and stimulant of creation.”
- “One creative act is the stimulus for another. The painting stimulates a story and the story shifts to body movement and vocal improvisation. Which inspires another series of paintings.”
- “The best way to quickly expand the scope of creative expression is to actively experiement with different roles.”
- “A writer friend used to tell me that single-octave living is boring and unproductive.”
- “The creative imagination requires a certain abandonment and disregard for results, which often paradoxically generate the most useful outcomes.”
- “The process of creation is a force moving through us, and only through practice do we learn how to cooperate with it.”
- “The process is like a muscle. It needs to be exercised in order to function effortlessly.”
I think we all wish we could paint or sing or dance or write effortlessly. But it’s not like that. Even professional artists practice. They practice every day. And if any of us decide we want to do something creative we must expect to work at it too. Nothing comes free.
Art is everywhere. To prove it, I have interspersed photos I took today at the mall during my walk. Think of it as creative expression filling in the blank spaces. 
Look around you. You’ll see your touches of art, peeking out of the oven when you’re making a special family dinner, oozing out of that warm family room you just repainted, that office you just organized. Sitting quietly in the photo album of last summer’s vacation, or in the box of family photos sitting on the shelf. It’s right there in the blog entries you write when you share bits of your lives with the rest of us. When you sing in church, or alone in the car at the red light, that’s art. Dancing with your loved one at a wedding or on your anniversary, that’s art too.
Don’t ever think you aren’t artistic. As a child you painted and danced and sang. It’s all still in there, we’ve just let ourself be told that we’re not “good enough” at painting and dancing and singing. That’s foolishness. If you want to let that creative energy out, let it out! And let it out a lot! Practice practice practice, ignore what you think are mistakes, move along. Just do it.
There. I think I’ve convinced myself.
We woke to sunshine today! It’s amazing how a little sun can change an attitude almost instantly!
Today was Katie’s first ever Rally trial…Novice A, which means we don’t know what we’re doing! Seriously! This morning started out with snow, and it was still snowing when we left for the one hour trip down to the trial venue. We left early because we figured the roads would slow us up, but we arrived right around 11:00 when the trial began. They were doing Excellent A & B, then Advanced A & B and finally Novice A & B. So getting there at 11 when they were just starting Excellent wasn’t such a good idea. It meant LOTS of waiting for Katie and me. Lucky thing I bought her a little crate, so we didn’t have to walk around for the entire 5 hours!
There’s a mall nearby that is closing. All the interior stores have closed and only a couple of the big stores on the ends remain open. There has been talk for years about what could be done to make the property more viable but it’s always seemed inevitable to me that the mall would fail. Three or four years ago I did all my Christmas shopping there because it was never crowded. Not even just before the holiday.
But for me the saddest things were in the basement where they were selling fixtures; shelving, file cabinets, decorations, mirrors, tables and manikins. The naked manikins, standing in groups, lined up or hanging in rows were somehow disheartening. Like children not picked to play on a team in middle school gym class, they seem lonely. And a little bit embarrassed at being unclothed. Yet the symmetry of their body parts was intriguing as well. The way they were grouped together, either as members of a marching army, or guests at a cocktail party seemed to inspire a story. One without a happy ending.
Katie, her dad and I went to agility tonight. I was eager to see if the success we experienced last week when she finally connected with the A-frame would transfer to tonight. And I was wondering if she’d get comfortable on the tall dogwalk tonight as well given she only ran it once last week on her own, then got scared. We’ve done a little bit of dogwalk in the driveway this week, but the weather has really limited the amount of time we had to practice out there.
Class started with dogwalk, and all the dogs trotted right over without problem. Now we’re focusing on getting them to do the 202o at the end. Even Katie stopped when I told her to TOUCH! Then we added the tire to the dogwalk. No problem. After that we did a series of 3 jumps and then tunnel; we were practicing pushing and pulling the dog, sending them to the correct entrance of the tunnel which was shaped in a tight U. Katie loved the jumps, but had difficulty doing tunnel. There was no room for me to run past the entrance, so each time I slowed or stopped she’d pop back out. That was frustrating. She was successful eventually but it wasn’t a sure thing. The first time she successfully jumped then ran through the tunnel she ran out the other end, and while I was fumbling for a treat to reward her, she spotted the dogwalk across the room and ran straight for it and was up and over it before I had time to react! We all laughed. Silly shy little pup, afraid of everything, was choosing her own agility course now!
Change Is Hard 