Artist Block

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Thank you Steven for posting that quote, it gave me just that little push that I need today. That one is going up on my wall.

Joan

[Garth Herrick]

Originally Posted by Joan Breckwoldt

Thank you Steven for posting that quote, it gave me just that little push that I need today. That one is going up on my wall.

Joan

DITTO!

Thanks Steve, that quote is so true. Now I will load my brush!

Garth

Oh well, after five minutes it got too dark to paint after all. I will clean my brush and try again tomorrow. No computer for me tomorrow until day's end!

Garth

[Patricia Joyce]

Tom, you mentioned that when you did get back to the work, it was there and in a powerful way. "All the pent-up looking at art and analyzing it that I had done during that "lost" time came roaring forward almost out of nowhere...So I must have been doing SOMETHING during those years..."

I did not, was not able, to pick up even a simple pencil and paper and sketch for twenty-five years. But every look at a portrait caused a physical pull on my stomach. I just knew I could draw and paint portraits as good as the ones I saw in galleries. Even going to my niece and nephew's art shows in grade school and high school (they are now both majoring in art in college) created an anxiety and a cosmic pull toward drawing again. Maybe that is why the very first piece I attempted was better than any portrait I had drawn 25 years previous. I WAS "doing SOMETHING during those years" as Tom said.

The only mistake we make is to deny the essense, the core of who we are - artists. Even cowering 25 years did not take the artist out of my soul, it only caused suffering. I will never stop doing art, even during these mysterious blocks. I cannot deny that part of me any longer...she is real, and hungry, and oh so eager. I think my greatest anxiety is that I do not have enough time.... to become accomplished...