Amateur VS Professional

     My latest reading in The War of Art by Steven Pressfield including a discussion of what is an amateur and what is a professional.  This is really good food for thought, when do you know what you have taken that turn to become professional?  I am about to submit my pieces of artwork at the Spencer Fair tonight for consideration of prizes and ribbons.  When I worked on framing this past weekend, I pulled out the book with the rules of the contest and the title of the page is written: "Adult Domestic Arts & Crafts for Amateurs".  I had not noticed this before and my thought was "how does the fair define the word amateur?"   Maybe there has to be a certain fame associated with your art form and name.  Maybe you are selling and making money.  Now that I am thinking about it, I scanned the book cover to cover and did not see a definition of what is an amateur.  I guess it is believed that if you're an amateur, you know who you are"!
     Steven Pressfield states this: "The amateur plays for fun. The professional plays for keeps."  "To the amateur, the game is his avocation. To the pro it's his vocation."  "The amateur plays part-time, the professional full-time."  "The amateur is a weekend warrior. The professional is there seven days a week."  "The professional loves it so much he dedicates his life to it. He commits full-time."
     This is all wonderful food for thought.  My dream is to be able to do my art all the time, to wake up in the morning and get going painting, drawing, creating, whatever it is, all day long.  That day will come, and for my faithful readers, you will watch my process and see this come to fruition.  I long for the day when the only things I can submit in the Spencer Fair are my baked goods, my canned jellies or jams or my hand knit sweaters, because I will be known for my art work and I will be a professional artist!

Combating Resistance

     I am truly enjoying the War of Art.  Steven Pressfield writes in short, direct paragraphs and covers a multitude of (sins) information regarding resistance.  I even experienced it this morning when thinking about blogging.  Something in my head reminded me I have to leave the house half an hour early to drive to my work 35 miles away half an hour early, "do I really have time to blog? Missing one day is all right, no one will know."  As soon as I thought that, I got right up and sat down at my trusty laptop and here I am, keeping my promise!
     I have just touched upon the topic combating resistance, but I am already feeling liberated.  I love this first quote: "It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior's life" by Telamon of Arcadia, mercenary of the 5th century BC.  I love this too: "The moment an artist turns pro is as epochal as the birth of his first child.  With one stroke, everything changes.  I can state absolutely that the term of my life can be divided into two parts: before turning pro, and after." (Steven Pressfield)
     This is reminding me of Lucy, a fellow art student I met at The Woodstock School of Art.  We were side by side painting the same models, we struggled over the same colors or the same form, we joked, we laughed.  I was there to witness her first art show of her beautiful oil paintings.  She was at a bank in Saugerties, NY, and when you entered the bank, which was conducting business, there she was with her husband and children around her helping, a table of refreshments set up and her paintings all over the bank, and she was selling them a I was there looking at them!  Her story was wonderful. She had started oil painting 3 years before and always remembered her first teacher telling her to paint every day, and paint she did.  That was her secret.  HongNian Zhang instructed me to draw everyday.
     I must listen to those wiser than me and put on my warrior armor and conquer my own resistance!  At the end of this writing, I want you to realize that by doing this I am combating my resistance to sit here, believing that I did not have the time to blog, and I am going to report that I am leaving for work in 15 minutes, which proves to myself that, yes, indeed, I did have time to blog.  I was only fooling myself!!

"Procrastination is the Theft of Time", Edward Young, British Poet

     As I continue with my reading of the War Of Art by Steven Pressfield, I am gaining insight into what resistance is, and procrastination is one of the indications.  I have heard this phrase my whole life about procrastination being the theft of time.  Since I am thinking about this phrase now, I looked it up on the internet and discovered the author was British poet Edward Young.  There, I also found other wise sayings he had and I want to read more about him.  I have a feeling that he was a creator who resisted resistance and movement forward with this art, and accomplished what he dreamed about.  I also always  heard the phrase not to put off until tomorrow what you can do today.  A long time ago I use to ponder these thoughts, but only briefly.
     When I was young, I would put off anything that seemed unpleasant, even though it was necessary or required, like a big homework project for school.  I would get to the library on Saturday, park myself there as long as possible, photocopy as much information as possible, take it all home (no, there were no computers!) and just spend the rest of the weekend putting it all together.  I had made this my practice and actually prided myself to have mastered my procrastination since I always came through, and, after all, no one knew that I did this, the teacher only knew that the project was completed on time.  As an adult, I have mastered leaving my house and getting most places on time, by the skin of my teeth sometimes, though.  I have timed myself going from this point to that point and when I can leave the house. It does create for stressfulness as I keep checking the time.  I do realized it is best to leave early to prepare for the delays and to have less stress.
     When I think about my art, I do realize that I did not procrastinate on my art or creativity as a child, I would fill my time with all of the things I loved to do, maybe that is why I procrastinated on big school project.  But, as an adult, I seem to procrastinate with my art, which actually disturbs me very much, since I am always looking at my world in terms of colors, palette, composition, design and ideas for future masterpieces.  I would like to report that I did accomplish my goal yesterday of framing my art work for the Spencer Fair, so now I am ready to submit my work, and I will not be scrambling at the last moment to put it all together and arrive breathless as the last bell gongs.  As you all can see, I have kept my promise to blog.  Also, I am going to work now and since I am aware that a hurricane passed through yesterday, I need to leave extra early in order to accommodate any slow traffic from workers out there cleaning up the mess left behind.  I am a work in progress, and, at my age, I am still learning, still needing to be reminded of things, still striving for improvement.  My art is very important to me, I am going to come up with a plan to put this more in the front of what I need to do.  Any one else have a problem with procrastination?

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

     It has been a long time since I blogged!  "What happened?", you ask.  I will tell you that "life happened", I work full time, I have home responsibilities, I need to sleep 8 hours at night, I need to watch my favorite shows on TV, I must see who is being eliminated on various reality series, I need to sit down and pay my bills, the list will go on and on.  I check my blog faithfully, I check my STATS to see how many people read and from where in the world. For this, I will say "thank you" to all of you who return just to check to see if I posted any more art or wrote, and to the new people who just happen to find my blog. I sincerely hope that it is enjoyed by all.  I will think to myself, "I need to write, but I haven't been able to do any art, what will I talk about, my "block"?", then I will think I never finished telling about the artists I met on the cruise in the spring, and then I close down my blog, just to open it up the next day and go through the same scenerio.
     I decided today is the end of not blogging!!!  I give credit to the book The War of Art, Winning the Inner Creative Battle by Steven Pressfield.  I found this book online yesterday, I manged to get it transferred to my e-reader (yes, all by myself, since I am not technologically savi).  I just began reading it today, this morning, as I am hunkered down in my house listening to the pouring rain as Hurricane Irene comes our way north.  The first topic is resistance, which is rooted in fear, and starts in our inner being.  I decided, at this point in my reading, to stop and blog, as a gesture of fighting my resistance, even if all I have to talk about is why I haven't been blogging.  He explains that once you conquer resistance, then you free creativity.
      My hope is to be sure I blog regularly, be sure I have been creating in some fashion, and keep my eye on the prize.  I will share what I am learning and how I plan to apply it to my art.  I will say that today's assignment will be to get my art work framed and ready to submit to the Spencer Fair again. I will not say what I am doing because the judging is anonymous and I do not want to leak out what I am submitting, I will only say that I will, again, be competing with myself, something that makes me chuckle inside!  Thanks for reading.  Anyone in the path of the hurricane, stay inside and stay safe. To everyone else, have a nice day.