PNCA workshop with Lizzy House!

Can I say now that I went to Art School?? It was only for a long weekend, but I did... I went to Art School, to learn about some art, to DO some ART.
I don't know what I was expecting, what I wanted out of the time in Portland... Time to myself, away from motherly and daughterly responsibilities, a break from cancer, to hang out with my soon to be Pharmacist sister (Pharmasister?), to learn to silkscreen. Those were REALLY my expectations. What I received was VASTLY larger that these things. I don't really understand the magnitude of what happened in my brain, but I know that I am not the same person I was. There are still tears when I think of it, but I do know that I need to dream bigger.

To DREAM really, really BIG.

I have been trying for so many years to fit inside of this box-- it is reeel reeel cozy in here, I know all of the dimensions of it. I have decked it out very nicely with limits involving who I am, what I am capable of doing, and who I most definitely am NOT. It is comfortable but so very small.
My box is kept small because I can control that. I know that. I don't like to fail. That is so BAD. I don't like to get messy or to do things that I am not good at, and all this fits nicely in my little box.
So how to you get good at something unless you try it?

Like you have an ABSOLUTELY great time making something and it is total crap. What then? Is that failing? What you produced is U-G-L-Y-- like REALLY bad, BUT the process was enchanting? What is to be done with that? Did you waste your time? Is that failure?
What if the next morning, you wake up and you find that you are thinking in new ways, getting new ideas... feeling REALLY jazzed about the opportunity to make something that is NOT going to be perfect? What then?
You can just decide to stop thinking about the end product and begin to really get in to the "ride"... how ever long this crazy ride is going to last, what if you just go?
I did, I do, and I am...
I am here, at home-- there are LOT'S of home-y things that I have to take care of here (like really A LOT.) But in my head, I am still there. The ride hasn't ended. I still can see the possibility that is available to me if I just stop trying to see the end product.
If I can just keep the voice of fear at bay-- the voice that has haunted me my whole life saying "keep it small Jessica, think about what the effort is going to merit in the end. Are the rewards going to outweigh the energy output? What if you try as hard as you can and you just fail, like it is all for nothing?"
"What if you just FAIL and it is all for NOTHING?"
What I understand now is that I have found my self, who I really am, in the PROCESS,
and no matter what my end product is, if the ink smudges, if the fabric rips, if I have to tear out the seams, if nobody wants to read what I have to write...
That is just OK with me. I still am where I need to be at this moment because I am doing the learning/designing/growing/making that I need to do. There is no fear for me in that. I am dreaming bigger.

I do want to thank Lizzy for the great experience, I have never spent 3 days in a row on ART before. It blew my mind. She is so open with her knowledge and is a great teacher. You all need to learn what she has to teach, I'm tellin' you!

JMB

A short word of wisdom from an unexpected place...

I was listening to an Utne podcast about "How violent video game are making us smarter." I know that a lot of people want to comment on that, but I think that it was just the hook, something to get you to listen, but not the meat of the "story". It was about blah blah blah, gaming, blah blah blah.....

BUT

then there was a sweet small idea that some researcher got from these gamers that went on to become very successful.......

WAIT FOR IT,

You have to fail a lot to have great success.

Of course they went on to talk about other things, but first made the point that in order to gain mastery in these video games you have to try and fail A LOT. These researchers postulated that perhaps that willingness to risk failure enabled them to succeed in their career fields.

I think that a discussion could go many ways from here....but I think that I am going to just take the short sweet message of "failing a lot leads to success".

Ok.....let's go and risk some failure!

JMB