The Artist Life: AUTUMN TRADITION - HANDCRAFTING ARTIST BLACK WALNUT INK
AN autumn tradition: handcrafted artist black walnut ink
THE MAKING PROCESS & IDEAS FOR USING
Now, though? While fall is still my very favorite time of year and I celebrate it's entrance, I also get cheesed up over ... black walnuts. Of all things, Debra!
Read moreThe Artist Life: 2019 - IT’S TIME →
golden
mixed media: watercolor, acrylic ink & gouache
9x12”
cold-press, 140# arches paper
It’s time, dear friends.
It is. it’s time!
It’s time to get my art out in the world, to get this website live, to get these words and images moving. It’s time to not just step, but to leap, out of my comfort zone.
I’ve been hearing that for a long while, deep within, and recently found to my surprise that I’d entertained the wrong voices. You know the ones…those voices that carry away confidence and speak death over dreams.
Whispers of Discouragement . . .
I’m going to guess that you, too, have such whisperings that discourage and doubt-fill-you and wreak havoc whenever the interior magic begins to flutter. It seems at times those voices are loud and distracting, pulling us waaaay off track .... at other times the volume is a low buzz, almost imperceptible and always deceptive. Or is it just me? Sometimes they slime us from without, sometimes its an internal thing. present, nonetheless. destructive, always. Ugh.
It feels like a war, or at least a full-on battle, some days, just to keep the precious imaginations of my heart in a protected space so that the nagging, negative voices are silenced. This past week has been like that, but it is a a battle, perhaps even a war, that I am winning.
But … I am winning
How?
I am winning in the risk-taking, in valiant pluckiness, winning as I kick in the faces of the giants who hide behind elusive, shadowy voices.
I am winning with every touch of a brush, every covered paper and canvas, every pen flying across a page.
I am winning by typing and fumbling and researching what I don’t know or understand
I am winning by connecting with my creative tribe. and mainly, by pressing forward, despite the internal chatter that screams crap like “You can’t do this!” and “Are you nuts?” and “Do not risk it - be safe!”
Best of all, I am winning today because I am choosing to listen to a different voice; one that says i can, i shall, i will. One that reminds me I am not alone, it is not that scary, and best of all, that it will be such, such an adventure.
One that coaxes gently: “It is time.”
So it is. And here I go.
xo,
debra ♡
PS: I hope you come with me, my brave & gallant ones. comment below — I’d love to hear about your ‘voices’!