Is it Spring Yet?

Looking for great art quotes? Look no further than Picasso. Here's a great collection. My favorite Picasso quote is:

"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. "
Pablo Picasso

I'll admit, I am not always very eager to do what I "cannot do." It would appear that's just an attempt at a failure waiting to happen, right? And I don't really like to fail. But aren't failures a (very important) part of the learning process? I know they are. You can take it from me, an artist and person who has been failing and consequently growing A LOT lately.

This is a little something I had to whip up for my day job (second only to the all-consuming job of Motherhood), as owner and principal designer at Bride Design. Creating this minimalist version of some summer callas went against my natural way of painting. What? I can't use every color in the box on this one? Just purple and green you say? No pen? Just paint? In the end it wasn't a success for the client, or myself, which was disappointing. But I did learn while creating it. Not only did I learn better "how" to paint in this different way just as Picasso talks about, but I also learned FROM the experience of doing and failing at it too.

Failures have an amazing way of leading to focus for me. I'm starting to befriend them, as ultimately these pesky and sometimes painful little wrong-turns, lead towards change, movement, momentum and hopefully, success (whatever that means.)!

Wouldn't it be nice...

It may sound cliché, but I've always loved books for the escape they offer. As a kid reading Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time, I'd get sucked into the adventure and narrative. Now as a mom reading picture books, I get lost in the nightly ritual of settling into a comfortable spot, reading the familiar words of a story, finding new things hidden in the pictures (like I did in Helen Crag's gorgeous illustrations for Angelina at the Fair last evening), and calming myself and my children with the rythmic turning of pages.

It's easy to lose one's self while reading, and I've found it's easy to lose one's self while creating an illustration as well. So to celebrate "getting lost" I figured I'd post a picture of some place I'd like to be. As snow swirls outside and a burgeoning calendar bursts with activities for the next few months, I'd love to be exploring (in this case with an adorable little one in wellies and sunscreen of course!) a lush garden in New England somewhere. Actually, it would be even better if I was just visiting these hospitable people. I'm just off the page to the right in an adirondack chair, with sunglasses, lemonade, and if I'm lucky a drawing pad. I can enjoy the giggles of that little one and my own little ones who are also somewhere playing in the distance. See how easy it is to get lost? Where are you getting lost to these days...in books, in creative pursuits, and in life?