I am sitting here after the most amazing day at the studio. I feel all accomplished when I go there. I feel like I'm a real artist.
Today, I started a commission, but only after praying my daughter from Dulles Airport, to downtown DC where she walked through pummeling rain by herself with a guitar, kavu and carryon and got herself to Fredericksburg, VA via metro, buses and trains. At one point, as I prayed, I saw two huge angels escorting my "baby girl" as she walked the streets of downtown Washington, DC where I had a summer internship at her age. In one of our phone chats trying to figure out where she should be, I told her about the angels. She said, "Well, all three of us are soaking wet then."
This was not the original plan.
But it was the reality.
Today, I couldn't think. So I had to paint my prayers. These prayer pages are really primitive, but they are valuable to me as an artist. They teach me to paint not just what I observe, but what I am feeling. Someday, those two things will merge onto my canvases.
If you look closely, you'll see Laina's profile and her guitar in the window behind her.
Meanwhile in the studio... The tables were packed with coffee lovers. I had one divine appointment after another today and got very little painting done.
But these days are interesting. I get to do more church at coffee tables than I ever did in a pew. But invariably, people will look at one of Jed's paintings behind my easel and say, "Wow. Did you do that?" I usually say, "I wish." But today I said, "No, the magic ones are Jed's."
I represent Jed all day and help people know about his work, classes and when they might catch him at the studio. I rarely talk about my own paintings. And because I love them so much, this makes me super happy.
And yet, my own work is selling somehow. And almost always, my paintings sell when I am not there so I have no way of knowing what type of person likes them. (So much for identifying my target audience...LOL)
I am happier at the studio than anywhere (except snuggling at home with my family whenever we are all home.)
As I sit here at home on the couch, I am still wearing a necklace that says, "Comparison is the thief of joy." I am also wearing a key to the storage room in the carport of my childhood home in Alabama.
It is a reminder that JOY is key to my art - to my life!
Do you see what I am trying to say?
Jed is my mentor. I can't expect to be as good as he is. But somehow he and Renae believe in me. They've given me a wall in a gallery! They let me paint live in their space. They trust me not to embarrass them. They let me help set up the studio walls and give marketing ideas.
They let Lydia C Creative•Life be part of Dorsey Fine Art Studio.
Let me insert here that I have just, at Jed's request, finished a preview reading of a book he has just written that will be soon published. wow...just, wow...
It took a few days to read carefully, but honestly, after the first two or three sections I got so swept up in it that I forgot to be critical. What can they not do? They've started Acrylic University, an online art learning format. They done two solo shows this year, plus online shows. They are raising a wonderful daughter, helping their family, investing like crazy in our community... I could go on and on... It could be intimidating.
And I have a choice.
I can celebrate and be "beyond the moon happy" for them
- or I can compare myself to Jed and feel defeated.
But oddly, in that book, is a photo of a painting Jed did when he first started in acrylics. It was so incredibly comforting because I could see that, as he switched mediums to learn acrylics, he was struggling with some of the exact things I see in my canvases right now. The point is, he didn't give up. Neither will I. And I get to learn from him!
The very first lie of the enemy is that we should be discontent. I will do a live video on that as soon as I get up the nerve to video myself again.
But in the meantime, I get to take every thought of mine captive and send it in the most healthy direction (either to be repeated or to my mental compost/trash bin.)
Be inspired today. That's my choice. And that thought is holding hands with JOY. Everybody wins.
love,
Lydia C
©2019 Lydia D Crouch