The Magic of Art

I have started painting. I painted a lot when I was a kid and as I became an adult, my preoccupation with unnecessary worries and constant chasing of an invisible perception meant that my painting time was compromised. It happened with several of my deepest loved desires like writing, poetry, photography and stage acting. I just did not have time either  because I thought I did not or because my energies were scattered on multiple things that were not even close to what I loved doing.

Now, as I am starting to consiciously live, I have automatically went back to the so many wonderful things I have always loved as a child and I realized that my love for them has not decreased even an iota. One thing I have been doing for the past couple of months is to paint. First, when I started painting, it was random garbage. I could not paint anything that was not abstract. The reason was that I had stopped observing things and took them for granted. For instance, when I tried to paint a flower, I realized that I was painting from an image of a flower in my mind that was abstract. I knew the structure of a flower but nothing more about it. I had never taken the time to observe the lighting, shadow, the texture, the pattern, …

There is a story that comes to mind – Apparently, there was a great painter in China long time ago. He was an amazing painter as his paintings would be bubbling with life. If he wanted to paint a tree, he would go and sit before the tree. He would sit for hours, days or years until he felt he became the tree. That is when he would start painting.

These last two months, I have noticed my painting skills improving a lot because I just started observing and enjoying the life around me more than I ever did.

I will upload  my artwork sometime in future. In the meantime, check Daniel Edlen’s Vinyl paintings. He is an amazing guy and I get awestuck everytime I see one of his rock stars! :0)

A misfit? Really??

Have you ever been called a misfit, meaning you don’t belong somewhere like your workplace, church, community, etc. Is that because you are different from others?

Not fitting is actually very good. I just came across these amazing people who are changing how music is played. Computer programming combined with live music – check it out. Another classic example of carving a niche for yourself. The world needs your talent.

A Rubber Band

If you have a lot of colored pens on your desk and a paper, how long does it take you to draw beautiful mulicolored lines or multicolored lines evenly spaced apart? Now, take a rubber band and tie the pens together and in one stroke, you will find this possible. This is now trivial. The power is not in the pen or paper or you, the power is in the way your small rubber band held everything together.

One common problem always in an organization is that everyone is like a colored pen wanting to exhibit the beautiful things they can draw. But very few people want to be the rubber band that brings everyone together to make the drawing beautiful and even better, easy.

To be a leader, be the rubber band. That is where value and useful experience lies.

Hold them together

Seth’s Wisdom

I came across this blog post from Seth Godin about creativity. Worth reading…

I don’t think it is necessary to add my analysis to this beautifully written piece.