Remember and Inspire.

Sometimes we have to push forward with things even if we don't feel ready. The truth is, many of us are scaredy-cats when it comes to inviting people into our personal space. Oh, the inviting part is easy. I do it almost without thinking. But when it comes down to crunch time, I almost never really feel ready. 

Case-in-point: Earlier this summer when I planted sugar baby watermelons in my tangled backyard, I got excited.  I thought they'd make a wonderful subject for a still-life painting. I figured they'd proliferate and ripen just about the time the pandemic wound down and I thought how nice it would be to share the bounty with other artists. So I sent out an invitation to a few artist friends to come paint them with me out in my backyard. I figured I'd get the backyard and my house prettied up by then. Hah!

I didn't count on life getting in the way. I don't know why I didn't. It always does. So when we finally decided on a date, it was squeezed in between two mural projects with not much time between to clear away the garden remains in the backyard.  So the yard was a little messy. Ok, it was a LOT messy. I just didn't feel put together, and that made me more than a little nervous when the day arrived. Add to that a hungry husband who, forgetting that I was saving the tiny melons for the event, cut into the largest one the day before. He apologized profusely, and even came out to apologize to the gals. I have to say that he more than made up for it by helping me clean up before and after the event. What a guy!

        From left to right: Janet Kondziela, Me, Jane Grigs, Gail Churchill

And you know?, none of them seemed to mind, or even notice the tangled vegetation along the fence-line or my less-than perfectly organized studio. We just really had a great time painting! The sun was out and the air was filled with the gentle warmth of early fall. The shifting afternoon light at times had an ethereal glow to it and we got a little excited trying to capture it. There was just a hint of evening chill as we finished up. And the most important thing we all took away was the encouragement we felt after being so isolated the last few months. There's something very comforting about sharing artistic insights under a gentle autumn sun with no pressure to perform. 

To top it off, I was talking about this with a horse-lover/owner friend last night and she invited me to bring a group of artists out to her very picturesque grounds and paint her horses in mid-October. Imagine all I would have missed had I let a messy yard or studio get in the way!

What is stopping you? Whatever it is, I encourage you to push forward. You'll be so glad you did.

Jan

You can view Janet Kondziela's lovely work at http://janetkondziela.com/about

Gail Churchill's "Goldenrod and Milkweed" can be viewed here.

All of us are members of Artist's Society of Dearborn. Some of our work for 2019 can be viewed here.