Just thinking.....

If you have checked in on me very often you remember I love finding quotes and ran across this gem.  "When you move forward with passion about what you know, what you don't know won't paralyze you." author unknown

When I think about 17 years ago and whether or not I should have or should not have started sculpting it puzzles me as to how I thought I had the guts to jump into something at that point in my life when most people would have been thinking of ways to live an easier life.

Sure there were a lot of things through the years that if I did not know I had to either ask about or  experiment until I found a solution. Some things just had to be done rather than explained because it was the feel of something not necessarily the explanation of how to do it.

In the old days there was a clay that was probably one of original oil clays (Plastilene) and I began in California with it...until the first time I wiped my eye with a dirty hand and the burning from the residue of the clay made me start my search for another clay quickly. Most of the time it is the effectiveness of a product, or the smell or residue of a product that turns me against it.

Also in the old days we used to do plaster molds by the old method of a large bucket of water and putting your plaster in until it started to "hill" then we kept eyeballing it until it was time to add the fiber glass. I played with silicate sand in sandblasting not knowing it would be later found to cause cancer and cut stained glass letting chips fall where they did not knowing some would remain in my skin and cause little bumps when skin grew over them.

When you are young you are fearless.....and a little dumb!

Now I am smart enough to know that certain products are not good inhaled or handled bare handed. Often I have to move something that is too heavy and I know better but no one else is around, that is knowing better but doing it anyway....also dumb.

So  just to let you younger artist know, we all start out with a dream and learn along the way but don't ever let your fear of failure place blinders on your creativity.

Want to close with another favorite that I ran across that I feel we have always wanted to do as an artist and maybe on a personal level also....we all wish we could do that fantastic monumental piece of art but we need to know that all our small endeavors are important to someone also.

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble." Helen Keller

Regardless of the work being accomplished, do your best and always work with pride...art is forever and it so speaks of our society as a whole.