I’m feeling a little disoriented/disheartened today. I need to focus and filter out distractions, of which there seem to be many.

Part of my discouragement seems to be due to the stage of the carving I’m at right now, the carving being ‘A Tribute to Michio’. It is at the ‘yucky’ stage, there are still many problems to resolve and lots of rough edges.

Keep working, keep working, keep working!

Tags: tribute to michio, moose, work, perseverance

Miranda stressed again how enthusiastic she is about the recent attention my work is receiving and emphasized that she felt my gifts as an artist lie with carving, more so than painting or clay sculpture. Watching me at work carving, she observed that this is what I was meant to do.

Strangely, I have been tempted to pack carving in and start off in a new direction, the challenge of learning a new skill removed with the first blush of success. It would not be the first time I have done this. However, this time I think I’ll persevere to see how far I can go with the carved medium, to find my challenge in the work and not in the becoming of someone new. It is time to be grown up and make a contribution with my lifetime.

Carving comes so naturally and I enjoy all of its related aspects, from finding the raw materials to marketing the finished product, the whole providing a balance to my life. Different from my former professions -- at which I always felt like an outsider and internally a bit of an impostor -- this is who I was meant to be.

Tags: perseverance, encouragement

I’ve decided to place advertisements for my art business in the phone directory. It will be costly, but they might help pave the way for exhibitions later on. This means that I am committed to carrying on. I'll begin work on the show. I still haven’t decided what the theme will be, but it will have something to do with overlapping shapes, groups, emotions, tangles.

Tags: perseverance, style, curves, angles

I saw the movie 'Tin Cup' at the theatre tonight. It is an inspirational look at ‘going for it’ for the sake of ‘going for it.’

I think of my art. I haven’t so much as picked up a carving tool for two months. What’s wrong? I am busy doing stuff for other people again.

Jerry and I talked again about doing a show next August or September. I said I’d look into venues, but I find my enthusiasm has died. Has 'real life' intervened again? What happened to my resolve of earlier in the spring? I’m afraid it has melted a bit in the face of other demands.

However, I will press on. I very much want to do the show.

Tags: enthusiasm, perseverance, gerald kortello

I watched a video about the great British sculptor, Henry Moore, last night.

Moore talked about an older brother who inspired him to draw. He said he was quite good but never chose to make anything of it. I guess such a fate is possible. I did not carve last night. I think carving is still on the same level as flossing: good and important but not yet psychologically mandatory. Both need to be 'must dos' every day.

Tags: henry moore, perseverance

It's the end of the day, Friday. A wet snow is descending happily upon us, enclosing us for the weekend.

How am I feeling? A little lost right now. Tired at the end of the week, mostly. I feel as though I am trying to build a life on quicksand. As fast as I build, it sinks into oblivion. I must have faith in myself - one day, one project at a time.

Writing has a way of helping to focus my thoughts in a linear fashion, instead of them banging around inside my head all at once. These words are my lifeline, constantly saving me from drowning in a sea of self preoccupation and internal chaos.

I would like to try art again this evening after vacuuming.

Tags: emotions, perseverance

Emotional storms will come and go like the weather. If I am to succeed, I'll need to walk my plan on rainy days, sunny days, cloudy, stormy, snowy and freezing days.

There is a strength that comes with perseverance that I want for myself.

Tags: emotions, perseverance