Late last summer, I was inspired by the beauty of the pink coneflowers in my garden, and started working on a piece of art. With a preliminary sketch completed, I transferred my vision to canvas, set my palette, picked up my paintbrush and got underway. Stepping back to look at my work there was something that just didn’t feel right with it, and I abandoned the canvas and moved onto other projects. I will be the first to admit that I can be distracted by ‘shiny’ things, in this case, a new project or two, or ten for that matter.

In February, after months of seeing the canvas just sitting there, I decided to continue with the project, but take it in a new direction by adding the element of collage. I’d been playing around with my Gelli print plate and had a collection of freshly minted collage papers that I was itching to use. Once again, something just didn’t feel right, and I abandoned the project only to pick it back up this week. I continued to add more paper elements and some of it was working, but something was still off. I finally broke down and went back to the original photographs of the garden, and found that I had lost sight of the plant’s true nature. Not that I was trying to recreate the flowers precisely, but I was forcing leaves in places that none would normally grow. Realization dawned and I found myself back on track. The piece is not finished, but several valuable lessons have been learned.

The old phrase ‘don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater’ came to mind. The etymology of this phrase comes from the days when having a bath was a major chore. Homes didn’t have running water let alone hot running water so there was a tin tub that was often set up in front of a fire place into which boiled water would be placed. The head of the household, usually the father, used this bath first then the other members of the family would follow. By the time the baby of the family was in the tub, the water was fairly murky, hence the origin of the saying. We can be blind to what is right there in front of our eyes. That was my problem, I was putting elements into my piece that just didn’t exist. I thought they were needed, instead they were throwing the balance of my piece off. Clearly, I knew something was wrong, but I just couldn’t see it until I went all the way back to the original photos taken in the garden.

Here’s a list of lessons that I am learning from this art project:

First - just keep at it. Giving up or throwing the canvas out is just not an option. This project is salvageable.
Second - it’s okay to walk away from a project to get some much needed perspective, and return to it later.
Third - sometimes you need to go back to the beginning to figure out where things went off the rails.
Fourth - not everything you make will be a masterpiece. In the end, I will frame this piece, and perhaps someone will want to purchase it, or at the very least it will go up on my wall to remind me of the lessons it has taught me.
Fifth - often there’s more than meets the eye to some problems. You might find the need to educate yourself better on the underlying causes of the problem so that you will be in a better position to solve it.
Last and most the important - the value of life long learning and the role that education plays throughout our lives.
For those new to my blog, I taught high school science for fifteen years in the public school system, and my philosophy of education is that my purpose was to teach my students how to learn, and if I was successful, they would retain the principles of science they were exposed to. It is our hope that everyone comes out of school with the basics of being able to read, compute, write, think critically, problem solve, follow their curiosity, act creatively, and always always ask questions. Just because you have graduated doesn’t mean you stop learning, rather it is at this point in your life that the real learning begins. You take the basic skills that you acquired, and you apply them everyday in your life as you will be constantly challenged with new experiences to navigate through. It’s all about mindset. If you set your mind to it you will figure out a way to solve the problem that is in front of you, and if you can’t, hopefully, you will have the skills to find the people who can. Each one of us possesses the capacity to solve problems, what we especially need is the capacity to share those skills with others. We can fix things together, and that is at the root of community building. Don’t struggle in isolation, seek help. Be on the look out for people who look like they might need a hand with something, and reach out.

Here’s where I am today.

There’s more work to do, but I’m feeling back on track.

This week, reflect on what challenges you are facing. What skills can you use to find solutions? Who out there might be able to help you out? What can you offer to others who need a helping hand?

Take care,

Maryanne

Fix It

Popping Up