That last post, about our meeting and marriage, garnered so many loving comments, I hardly know what to write next. Happily, the best notes each of us received were from each other. The thought even crossed my mind to share those, but who would blush most, you or us?<\/p>\n
We’re in Oregon, half way though our art-making hiatus. You’d think that would be fun, and an epitome of the free life. Both are true enough. Yet there’s something daunting about a blank canvas or sheet of heavy rag paper ready for ink or paint of some design, who knows what? Or worse, something intimidating about a piece of art half made, but the ongoing touches\/strokes\/designs\/colors not at all clear.<\/p>\n
There are moments of exaltation when something seems to be working, but one can also feel like a failure several times in a day. The canvas, like life, doesn’t always make clear what it needs to succeed.<\/p>\n
I go to the Scripture, hoping for guidance. There’s David in Psalms calling out for guidance. Do answers come? We can assume so . . . but then there he is again in the next psalm, calling out again.<\/p>\n
Still, his confidence doesn’t altogether lag . . . not in life, not in God.<\/p>\n
Art-making, you might think (or I might think) is one of the least necessary things in life. Yet it is so like<\/em> life. I’m reminded of the famous chess match between Boris Spassky of Russia who said “Chess is like life,” and Bobby Fischer of America who said “Chess is<\/em> life.”<\/p>\n So it is for some of us with art.<\/p>\n And we sense that God would see it that way too.<\/p>\n So we go on. Sometimes in free abandon, and sometimes working it out in fear and trembling, feeling very alone.<\/p>\n There’s a book, Art and Fear<\/em>, which Anne and I have often referred back to for its depth of understanding and pithy aphorisms. I was asking her about one of the quotes the other day, trying to get it right. “Why?” she said, “You don’t have the problem.”<\/p>\n Ha, do I have her fooled!<\/p>\n Here it is:<\/p>\n “Fears about yourself prevent you from doing your best<\/em><\/span> work… Did I not tell you art-making is like life? These fears inhibit on every side if we let them, and in every area. Art is life.<\/p>\n And living it is an art.<\/p>\n “Be bold and courageous.”<\/strong>** That’s another from Scripture, spoken by God himself to Joshua, now on his own after Moses’ passing. That’s the word I’ll take today, faced with all these blank or half-filled canvases.<\/p>\n And that’s what I’ll pass on to you. Which one of us, whatever the art form of our lives, hasn’t much to overcome?<\/p>\n Don’t quit. Seek guidance. Keep painting.<\/p>\n Whatever “painting” means to you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n ____________________ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The art of living requires all the fits and starts, the seeking of direction, and courage to plow ahead as, well, making art. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6109"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10717,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6109\/revisions\/10717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nwhile fears about your reception by others prevent you from doing your own<\/em><\/span> work.”<\/strong>*<\/p>\n
\n* \u00a0 Art and Fear, Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking<\/em>, David Bayles and Ted Orland
\n** Joshua 1:8 (long a favorite)<\/p>\n