On falling in love with practice

Sunday, March 31, 2019


"Your job is to learn to work on your work."  ~Art & Fear

Less and less I am fearing the blank page. I wake up in the morning thinking of the practice ahead. Drawing. Ideas. Hungry to hold my pencils I sit down and contemplate what practice is going to be the best for me in that particular moment.

Not everyday is calling for deep and challenging time of drawing, however ideal of a practice it is for fast improvements. Some days, I don't feel too well tired physically or mentally I'm just looking for reassurance in the quick figure sketches of which most of them will go to the recycling. In this practice, I still sit down drawing ,however badly, and reassure myself about the meaning of it all.



Love the practice of drawing. I go to bed fulfilled and feeling purpose in my life. But it wasn't always like this for me, quite the contrary.


“Perhaps we'll never know how far the path can go, how much a human being can truly achieve, until we realize that the ultimate reward is not a gold medal but the path itself.” ~ George Leonard, Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment

In the past, I was so preoccupied with the final product, the end piece, it took so much of my joy away and created unnecessary frustrations and long periods of time without practice. It wasn't until I found out about the idea of falling in love with the process, that I finally learned to let go of the product.

I still have lots of fears to conquer around the creative process, but at the moment I'm in love with learning and practicing just for the joy of it.


“Most enjoyable activities are not natural; they demand an effort that initially one is reluctant to make. But once the interaction starts to provide feedback to the person's skills, it usually begins to be intrinsically rewarding.”
~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Sometimes the most compassionate exercise to do is to allow yourself to draw for a little while, however badly, but draw anyway. Demanding practice where you push your limits and create better work than the last time has it's advantages and place among all the exercises but let's not forget that it's also quantity that matters.

Until next time,
Iva

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