WEEKEND THOUGHTS

Are you Painting Your Masterpiece?

Have you ever been in an art gallery marveling at a huge famous painting, or been in a room where the walls were one continuous mural and found yourself wondering, “How did they do that?” I have. Floor to ceiling art with everything in place and depicting not just a picture but a complete panorama with all the colors perfectly blended into each other. The scene appears to be almost real.

Here’s the secret. The artist didn’t just throw up a big canvas and start painting. It all started with seeing something that created a vision in the artist’s mind. Probably not exactly what you are looking at, because all initial ideas get changed along the way. But something similar. The next step was probably a small pencil sketch in a notebook, follows by a little 8X10 rough painting. And then a larger one followed by small paintings of just parts of the larger canvas to work out the details. Everything came together in pieces, each inspired by but not quite like the one before until finally the grand masterpiece became reality. And then when it was finished it still needed to dry and cure, maybe with some final touches here and there. But with passion for their work artists will finally complete the scene, maybe with a tiny thought that they might have done something better or will do better the next time.

Life is a lot like that. We start with a grand idea about what our life is going to be or what our next project is going to look like. But too many times we feel overwhelmed by its magnitude and don’t know where to begin. But if we have real passion for it, like most artists do, we don’t just stop there. We sketch out what it might look & feel like and start taking small steps to find out how it can be accomplished. The steps keep getting bigger and more detailed until finally, after a lot of time, effort and changes along the way, we reach our goals. That’s how dreams become reality.

May you never be the same.