Sunday, February 26

A few weeks ago I picked up Danny Gregory's Creative License. I was on my lunch hour and wandering through the Barnes & Noble near my office. Out of the corner of my eye I thought I recognized a book cover. There was no mistaking it - I had seen in on his blog some time ago and had mentally added it to my mental list of books to buy. I debated (for all of about a minute) about buying it - did I really need it? could I really justify it? shouldn't I be watching the budget and controlling my constant impulse to buy more books? hadn't I bought enough books on creativity and weren't they collecting enough dust beside the bed already? In spite of my excuses, it followed me home. And I'm glad.

Since then I joined the EDM Yahoo Group and have been reading Creative License. I feel like I have a new set of eyes. All this time wanting to draw and now I actually DO it. I'm trying to quiet those loud thoughts that tell me "you can't do this" or "you're not very good." There was a spiral bound sketchbook next to the bed that was just waiting for the day to come that I would put it to some use (it waited quite a long time). So now there are some drawings in it. And now, instead of wondering what on earth could I possibly draw, I see so many things around me that would be perfect to practice on. It's almost hard to slow down and pick just one thing!

Anyway, my next hurdle to clear was showing one of my drawings to someone. I was feeling pretty paranoid about that. So I decided before posting anything out on my blog I would have "trial run" with someone that I felt completely comfortable with. I emailed this picture to my niece, Tory, last Friday. Tory is 14. She is creative and smart and I admire her in every way. We live about 500 miles apart, so we don't get to spend time together as much as I would like to. But we email eachother regularly and I just love being able to share things with her. Sharing this with Tory gave me courage to open up my book and share it with others.