Thursday Thoughts...

“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.” 

Michelangelo

This one feels as if it is for anyone who has ever overheard somebody saying about their art " oh, I could have done that" or "my six year old nephew could have done that".

I have heard it a few times about my, and others whom I admire's, work and it always makes me want to shake my head and say i only you knew or understood.

It seems as if Michelangelo might have been shaking his head all that time ago too.

The other times I try to explain to people what a piece of art is made up of is when they think that because something may not have taken ages to create (because, I don't know, you have mastery of your subject), and they think it is over priced. 

For me, I often reflect on what got me to making that piece is the years I have spent preparing for it. The times I have stopped, started again; thrown something out because it doesn't work until I learn and discover exactly what does work. It is all the years of practising calligraphy until you know you can can form a letter O just so... or its the skills you have built up over time and the understanding of your materials that enable you to do this whiz-bang thing without tearing your hair out.

People so often don't see what goes on behind the scenes. They so often don't know of all the fails, before the successes. They so often don't know the hours of practising and practising. And all of the testing and trialling to determine what goes best with what when you are trying to achieve a certain goal.

Until they sit down and actually try to do it themselves.

Teaching Western Calligraphy to Japanese students in Tatebayashi 20009.