"Don't make a Mountain out of a Molehill" or is it "Make a Ballerina out of the M

Have I mentioned lately how much I love what I do? If I haven’t, “I LOVE what I do!” And it’s all because of the feedback I get from those of you who have embraced the Closet Creative Concept. One OC (Out'ed Creative) reluctantly sent me a picture of this painting that she recently finished. The fact that she took the time to sit down, on her own, to express herself creatively didn’t escape my enthusiastic praise! However, it’s what she learned about herself during the process that is so important and the entire reason why I even started Closet Creatives in the first place. As most creatives, her idea of the painting took a severe left turn somewhere between idealism and reality. I believe every creative feels this way sometime during the process. I know I do. It's that moment when you stop, look and say to yourself, “Why did I even start this?” You see, she had in her mind that she would be creating a landscape piece. Full of the sky, clouds and a mountain range. Well you know where they say the best laid plans go. All the reasons she gave as to why she didn’t like how the painting was turning out may have sounded irrational to me (isn’t it a shame how we’re all in our head seeing stuff no one else ever will - another blog perhaps) but they were completely rational to her. If she let it, she could have let that take her down into a funk. Arriving at the conclusion that "this" is why she should have never tried anyway. But here’s where the magic begins… she arrived at that “what the heck” moment and didn’t stop and quit, she determinedly pressed on. After taking a step back, and giving it a second look, she asked herself, “do you know what this "supposed" to be a mountain looks like? A ballerina tutu!” And so she became! We call this the technique of making your mistake intentional at Closet Creatives. You know like when you accidentally drip paint on the face you were working on and now that face has a mole. Or, when your daughter spills glitter all over your work space and what once was a tree is now a glitter tree. These examples may or may not be true but the point is, where many others would have determined that this mistake was the very reason why they are NOT creative and withdraw right back to hide in the closet, this OC continued. I couldn’t be more proud of her for crossing over the "this is awful!" to "this isn't so bad after all!" bridge. Many don't have that courage. And you know what? If she hadn’t told me the back story, I would have never known the tutu was originally intended to be a mountain. I bet you wouldn’t have been able to either. Now let's see if I can get her to sign it.

Oh, btw...I LOVE what I do!