Lorenzo Cain, Outfielder, Kansas City Royals
[Before I start – let me note that I am not a trained writer in any sense. My writing style just depends on sleep, caffeine and maybe the help of another more experienced writer (for editing help. My grammar varies and my proofing needs a ton of work – mainly because I was an awesome “C” student all throughout school. Never the less, I am putting a few honest words out there about – my art, my books, my designs and now my blog. Why? For a couple reasons – for promotional reasons, behind the scenes reasons and for younger artists coming-up reasons. So if you’re a critic and hate bad writing, do not read this. If you can read beyond the mess – roll the dice. Thx – ao.]
“New Years Resolutions? Say What?” – by AO
The older I get, the less I hear – “What’s your New Year’s resolution?” Why? I am not sure. Maybe it is because my circle of friends is getting older, wiser or maybe they could care less about resolutions and more about real things on their mind’s like paying bills, tuition, kids, baby mamma drama, marriage, health, their job – who knows? But I am definitely not getting asked as much – and that’s OK. Don’t get me wrong, I still ask it to some of my friends, but not as much as I use to.
I am actually glad I am not asked that much any more. Not because I hate being asked, I’ll gladly answer. My resolution to someone who asks would be like most – I resolve to pay my bills, create more art work, be a better parent, brother, son and friend, do more charity work, etc. And then I would get crazy and say – ” Win the lottery, work a project for Disney, work with Google, work with Apple, be the Official Painter for the Kansas City Royals, Chiefs, Sporting KC and the Jayhawks (sound effect: needle scratch on a vinyl record- SKREEEECH!) Hold up! There I go – again! Doing what we normally do on resolutions – going a bit over board- fun? Yes. Realistic? Not so much (well, maybe being an official painter for a major sports organization or working for Disney is possible).
But now, being a seasoned (meaning beaten, battered and learning the hard way) veteran – of life. I have changed my outlook about resolutions. Sure, its great to create them, dream about them, attempt to look into your future – but the older we get – hopefully, the smarter and more realistic we get. Don’t get me wrong – I still love to dream and have some crazy and lofty artistic and life changing goals – but I have to be more realistic – or else I will alway be in a state of playing “dreamer”.
Nevertheless, resolutions, to some, are about starting something new – from the start. Forget that! 🙂
Some of us creatives feel that we don’t have time to start something over or something crazy new. Some of us creatives (and non-creatives) have kids, a morgage/rent, tuition, child-support, baby momma drama, a full-time job, some of us have two jobs and who knows what else, and adding something new to our art work list and/or life work list could wreck us mentally and creatively.
So What is Your Point, AO?
So what if we “resolve” to BUILD on from 2015, on to 2016? Just keep building. What if we take a small step back and see what work was good, what work made us feel like we accomplished something and what work made a difference in someone’s life (ours, a friends, a cancer patient, your kid’s, etc.) – and build from there?
Don’t be too concerned right now about the flip side of that – the stuff that didn’t work. There is no need to go over the stuff that didn’t work. Right now, this month, focus on what worked and how to build. The stuff that didn’t work should also be handled and taken care of to make your life a bit easier so you can create some awesome art/designs – but for now, in January, what if we tried to focus on what worked?
So, build. Build on what you have started or have been designing in your head for the past few months. Use the momentum of those good and positive things that from 2015 to push you forward in 2016.
Sometimes if we take what what have and make it better – good things can happen. If we study, update, tweak, ask for advise or “think out of the box” for something we believe will work – you never know – it just might work.
So give it a try. It just might get you off the couch, away from the bar or club, off the street corner or just away from some life-drama and back in to the studio working and building on something really cool. Let me know if it works – it has for me a bit.
Also, as I have mentioned in a previous post, “Enjoy the fun moments of satisfaction during your process, build on what works, try to stay positive and most of all – Keep Working”.
Keep drawing – keep painting – keep grinding,
ao
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