The Cost of Admission

Daily writing prompt

What are you most excited about for the future?

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Written for the OWLG#45 prompts

What the hell was I thinking? If I had a dime for every time I said that, I would have a handful of dimes. Well, OK, I’d have a large sack to take to the bank. But one of the things I’ve learned is that it’s nice to follow that old rubric that ” the fool learns from experience, but the wiseman learns from watching the fool.” Cool. It just does not work out that way in reality.

Learning from experience is valuable. Among the things I’ve learned is that making errors can actually aid the creative process. How? Well, you sometimes stumble on new stuff, techniques, or approaches by working through the process. You can get the “aha” moment when things jell.

The Crative Process

I just had that happen with a ship portrait I was working on. I kept altering the design, and being unhappy. I’d then wind up re-carving things, altering the design or reposing the ship in the area where it would be placed. Nothing worked.

Then Yesterday I went to a maritime museum where, hanging on the wall was the Antonio Jacobson portrait of the same ship. Eureka! With the permission of the museum Director, I took a flock of photos of the painting, close up. As I went home, I was mentally selecting wood from my store for the new design. Taking the photos and printing them, I recreated the portrait at the size I wanted to carve – almost the size of the Jacobson original. This allows me to plan detail and perspective.

Others do it faster. But wait, I’m almost alone with what I do, so the ones who did it faster are way in my past. Tomorrow I’ll size and saw the wood panels for joining, glue, join, and clamp the blank. In a couple of days, I’ll lay out the design and start carving.

Am I excited? You bet, in one five-dollar admission, and the inspiring view of Jacobson’s painting, I’ve gone from disconsolate to excited.

Thanks, Antonio!