Self Help for the Creative

This Crazy Awesome work is created by my sister.  She is self taught and has an eye for color that most can only envy.  Because we both have the feeling of creative self doubt, we talk each other down from those many moments of frustration inherent in projects.  I admire her work so much and she doesn't get it.... that is, she doesn't get how cool her work is to others.  This, in a demented way, gives me hope.  I experience the feeling of never quite arriving with my gowns and she never feels like her paintings are finished.  Yay, maybe to another's eye, my stuff is okay.  

Anyway, she sent a great quote the other day.  I found it completely inspiring and want to pass it on to you.  This is for the creatively frustrated people out there.  The ones who feel the emotion of building something, whether it is in word, music, clay, metal, or even silk.  It explains the reason there is hesitation before starting something that has potential.  I love that my feelings can be justified in this way!  Mostly, though, I am relieved that there are other people out there that experience the same emotions I do.  Phew!

   

This is the other secret that real artists know and wannabe writers don't. When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. She approves. We have earned favor in her sight. When we sit down and work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete."

Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That's why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there'd be no Resistance."

"Are you paralyzed with fear? That's a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember one rule of thumb: the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it."

- Steven Pressfield  stevenpressfield.com

I especially love the part about the Muse taking note of our effort.  The gowns that I am happiest about are the ones to which I gave my heart and soul.  With those gowns a magical thing that happens where something bigger takes over.  I have always described it as something spiritual.  

Could that be my Muse? 

 I wonder.  

Note, this is a 3 foot wide painting, as I remember it.  The thing is huge and vibrant.  

It isn't your mama's floral painting!