Mirroring Life

I've said many times when discussing the creation of artwork with people, it's not so much the end result, but the process of creation that makes a piece of art what it is. In the beginning, you have an idea, an inspiration. You sit before your canvas, drawing out your lines, creating, erasing, smudging, changing over and over, until in the end what you have before you may be nothing at all like you originally envisioned- and yet it is ten million times better because of the process you took to get there. It reflects you and the inspiration you felt far more than that original mental picture. And because of this, it is in fact far greater. And that is what makes it art.

Life itself follows this same path. We begin in our youth with a rosy little picture of what we want our lives to someday be like. Then that vision meets with the real world, faces challenge, rejection, love, loss, a million new moments of inspiration and we change our path over and over, deviating slightly- or vastly- from the plan. As we create our future, we learn, we grow, we change, we erase and smudge... we falter sometimes, lamenting in the fact that our lives are nothing at all like we envisioned the would be. The downfall comes in our inability to step back and see that though it's not at all like we'd once planned, what we have created is so often so much more amazing than what we originally envisioned. And the end piece is made up of so much more than just what we see- so much of life, like art, is the journey we take.

Don't get lost in the original vision and fail to see what you've created. Remember once in a while to take a step back. And remember, you are still creating...