the long view…
I’ve always been a very impatient person. I could never wait for anything. I always hunted for my Christmas presents (I still do). No sooner did I have my pocket money in my hot little hands I’d be off buying a comic with it,. Cakes wouldn’t have a chance to cool before I’d be whiping them from in front of my aproned mother and burning my mouth with them. I always have wanted the newest, brightest and best. In short, anticipation and I have never been chums.
I am trying to learn to change though. I’m trying to develop a taste for the long view, for slow blossoming, for gentle strolling. Drawing does help with that. I think I’ve written before how I used to rush in panic at my drawings, working frantically in the hope that something would emerge. Now I work slowing (and usually without panic). I try to just concentrate on what’s in front of me and not think how this drawing will fit into my great (yeah right) career path, what I will learn from it, or whether it will make me any money. I just TRY and do what I’m doing and let the future take care of itself.
I’m a long, long way from perfecting the long view, but I am learning. It really is the only way I can sustain my creativity - doing what’s in front of me when I can and not thinking too much about it. So, I’ve allowed myself to take three days over drawing some pickles and am letting it be okay.
Now if only I could obsessively stop checking my web stats and counting how many copies of The Beany have sold…
January 2nd, 2005 at 5:22 pm
Happy New Year! Great slow Pickles drawing-painting. I like how tight the bottles are and the composition and colors.
Say how many of those Beany’s have you sold? I was hoping to get one for Christmas but instead I got a much bigger gift which was a really big surprise. However I intend get the Beany for myself.
Frederick in Wash. DC
January 4th, 2005 at 12:07 pm
the number just went up by one
cheers,
Anu
January 5th, 2005 at 8:37 am
I just found your blog. I like your drawings very much. It is clever how you place them on your blog. I hope to return.
By the way, you can make delicious cakes without wheat or sugar.
January 5th, 2005 at 12:34 pm
Good going Michael! I am the opposite of you, I enjoy the process so much that I am a fickle parent of finished art!
January 5th, 2005 at 9:04 pm
Enjoyment comes from viewing your drawings. No enjoyment comes from checking web stats, which are by nature deceptive things at best considering all the spiders and crawlers and folks googled your way in error. Have a great tomorrow!
I wonder if there’s a dance we Native Americans can do to help raise sales of The Beany? I’ll have to check into that. 8^)
January 6th, 2005 at 10:47 pm
As did I ~ I used to run instead of walk.
Walking bored me. I just wanted to get to the destination, and QUICKLY! So I ran.
And now I am learning to realise that the walk is the best part of the journey.
Blessings on your creative journey,
Leonie
January 9th, 2005 at 10:21 am
group fucking
January 10th, 2005 at 1:31 am
Hello Michael!
Been meaning to check out your site for a while, and finally have started to do this today. I’ve also learned to slow down a bit after an illness…I try and keep my blog links list fairly brief, but I’d like to add your site to it now.
You’ve got wonderful philosophies and your drawings are just beautiful!
I chose this entry to comment on because I liked dill pickles so much as a kid (and still do, actually) that one year, as a joke, my Aunt got me a jar for Christmas, wrapped it, and put it under the tree!
I gotta say, that was the most memorable, if not the best, gift I got that year!
Have a great day..can’t wait to view more of your stuff!!
Amy
January 22nd, 2005 at 7:33 pm
Michael …
you kindly responded to my querie about blogs in the journalgroup2 in yahoo and that sent me here …
what a powerful site (blog?) you have here! I will have to come back because I want to look at EVERYTHING that you’ve posted and have to get to work …
so Michael - do you write directly onto the blog or do you keep a journal and then type it up?
I will be back
I will buy a copy of your Beanie … of course!
but right now I have to runnnnnnn …
Patricia