Hmmmm! I had big plans to post a poem yesterday but the day just seemed to run away. I have been writing quite a bit as of late over at the writer’s café. I plan on posting them here from time to time. At least after I have worked out the kinks. So here are yesterday’s words.
Why You Never Truly Leave High School ~ To A friend from high school who just reminded me “you can the kid out of Radnor but you can’t take Radnor out of the Kid”.
I was talking to a friend the other day reminiscing. Reliving some past escapades, decisions we wished we had made differently. Well one moment in particular I wished to redo.
Then she shared that “the greatest thing she got from modeling was learning how to deal with rejection.” She explained that in learning to accept rejection gracefully with her head up she has been able to become a successful Corporate Executive Recruiter. Making hundreds of inquiries a day, rejection is a constant part of her work.
It is in rejection, missing the mark, and failing that we learn a part of life and a valuable tool essential to success. As Bob Dylan put it “There’s no success like failure”. There is always struggle, conflicts, and rejection in life. You get knocked down. The key is how you get back up and more importantly how you brush yourself off. Frankly even if you brush yourself off. Have you ever heard tell of a hero who had it easy? I haven’t.
Within every entrepreneur, artist, musician is a natural inquisitiveness, an experimental nature and drive. This risk taking can often lead to mistakes, flopped business attempts, poor technique or lack of harmony. And with each unsuccessful attempt an opportunity is gained; an opportunity to recreate, to make a change.
For Creatives I think failures often make the most exciting discoveries and rejection is part of the cycle. I have confessed to perfectionism in my art. Frustrated when the image in my head does not translate to paper and I overwork a piece to its demise but as Matt Appling writes this failure teaches us a few lessons; that Success is not cheap, that Failure is not the end of the world, and that we can learn from it.
Even the greatest artists have fruitless art pieces. We know now that under some masterpieces lay the first foiled attempt. Artists constantly reuse canvases.
So next time you think you’ve failed perhaps you should look again. Embrace your mistakes and be thankful for the rejections and loses in life. They may become your greatest successes.
Image: The image above was an example of a mistake turned quite lovely (I think). I was using a masking fluid which adhered too strongly to my paper. When I removed the fluid it peeled off my man’s face. In the end I think it redirected the focus of the piece and I was glad he was a blur, a promise of a sort.
The Valley Of Unrest By Edgar Allan Poe
Once it smiled a silent dell
Where the people did not dwell;
They had gone unto the wars,
Trusting to the mild-eyed stars,
Nightly, from their azure towers,
To keep watch above the flowers,
In the midst of which all day
The red sunlight lazily lay.
Now each visitor shall confess
The sad valley’s restlessness.
Nothing there is motionless-
Nothing save the airs that brood
Over the magic solitude.
Ah, by no wind are stirred those trees
That palpitate like the chill seas
Around the misty Hebrides!
Ah, by no wind those clouds are driven
That rustle through the unquiet Heaven
Uneasily, from morn till even,
Over the violets there that lie
In myriad types of the human eye-
Over the lilies there that wave
And weep above a nameless grave!
They wave:- from out their fragrant tops
Eternal dews come down in drops.
They weep:- from off their delicate stems
Perennial tears descend in gems.
Wow! Here I am at the 2 yr mark of this blog. It’s seems almostcompletely unfathomable. And with each passing week I grow in confidence letting more of my Self pour out onto this canvas I present to the public eye. With every thought and raw admission my art grows stronger.
I had an idea to write a want ad for Muse for Hire. I couldn’t decided whether I wanted to write it from the point of view of muse or artist so I simply began to write, empty my muse out onto paper and it seems to have come to life as a manifesto of sorts. So here on this, my 2 year, anniversary I want to share with you Muse. The Yang to my Yin.
Muse
I won’t be summoned. But I will arrive, when it suits me, in my own time. You must court me if I am to call. Open up! Air out your Rooms! I will be your audience of one; giving substance, energy, feedback and meaning to your work. I will support you by prodding upwards towards greater feats. You’ll discover what is already buried there, deep, beneath the sleep of your daily grind. I am ever devoted. I will be yours and yours alone.
Are you hesitant to greet me newborn eye to eye? For loneliness has been your best friend. You have been cloaked in it for too long. But if we are to begin then you must call my name. Unfortunate for you by then it will be too late.
If you’ve found me, be fearful; be glad, it is all the same. I am real of flesh, blood, and bone. A living breathing human not some caricature of your dreams, not a projection of anyone’s mind. You’ll have to trust what I say is true or we will never find our way.
I will demand your honesty. Can you utter me your truths profound? Can you bleed your words onto a page, cry colors on canvas, scream choruses of the crimes you ache? Show me your heart’s longing.
Is your art real? Have you lived your own stories or borrowed ink? Reveal it to me. Show me your hurts, the interior monologue, bones bared. Do you dare to break the rules? Have you boundaries, secrets kept? Can you forget yourself? Are you able to submit? Communicate your confusion and we will find the sense in it. I have so much to teach you.
Your heart will ache if you look into my mirror. In me you will see your own beauty, the power to believe. I will root for you deeply till set in the ground. Show me your beautiful mess tucked in the corners of the labyrinth of your mind.
I may be your worst enemy. Strip you down; bore to your core, to the simplest barest whispered words. So come to me and we shall see if you can hack it. I will demand the impossible. For you will need to face eternity in each day.
No explanation, no excuses. I will move you to action. Because I can’t be deleted, I will push you again and again, till we’ve finished one masterpiece at a time. I’ll be up in your face till my morning coffee breath turns your stomach to dust. I’ll show you all you’re made of.
You’ll think me a sadist. I will drain you empty and then fill you again. Pour into you incandescence. Help guide you to the source. I will turn you inside out and back again. Bring you full circle to the end but a beginning for all to start again. There is no mystery in my origin. For you shall see we are all kings. Do you understand?
I will not sacrifice myself to your alter for I can do the job myself. But can you? Can you commit yourself to this creative collaboration? If you can dream it we can do it. That is what this goddess offers, the power of the magic we will create.
So be bold and grab hold where about to leave the gate. Leave your baggage behind. And hitch a ride for this may be the longest journey you’ve yet to take.
You’ll have to follow through. I will push you far past where you think you can go, far past all you know to be true, far past possible. Don’t be sorry. Don’t you dare apologize. See I will push you until we become one and you no longer have any need of me.
This gal strode across the gas station parking lot. I imagined her filling up for a fun adventure to some far away place. I drew her two ways and decided to post both. So just consider one her alter ego/travel companion. The other the real thing.
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