Ironic choice of topic, since I have not made a blog post in a very long time. But I’m still here, still making.

Last year I read (Author’s) “Find Your Artistic Voice”, which seemed like a pretty good goal to move forward.  Throughout the book a common refrain is on the importance of “showing up” to your artistic practice.  But what does that really mean?

For starters, we call it an art practice because even people at the peak of their career need to make time to do the work.

“Showing up” means I put my butt in my chair in front of my easel or drawing board, even though what I really want to do is lay on the couch and scroll aimlessly through social media.  Showing up means I put brush to canvas, pencil to paper, even when I really ought to glean the grout on my kitchen floor.  At its surface it makes sense, right?  You can’t make art if you’re not making art.

But the real meaning is that you have to show up, even if what you make might not be very good.

Nothing feels worse than spending an entire morning working on a painting and then going back to it an hour later and realizing it looks like crap.  But you have to be willing to make the crap, because that’s how you learn.  I see my kids getting frustrated because I can draw a princess better than they can but they don’t understand how many crappy awkward princess drawings I made when I was their age (and also sometimes now).  Showing up means embracing your ability to sit and do the work and have nothing to show for it at the end, except maybe a loose idea about what you could do differently the next time you show up.