Snapshot from My Studio: October 14, 2018 at 04:16PM

The last third of Creative Sandbox Playday, after finishing one page spread in my Paris travel journal, I debated about taking the rest of the time to just doodle and muck about with line, shape, color—no attempt to make *things* that look like anything. But ultimately I decided to plow ahead with another page spread, because hey, I was on a roll, so why not? The only time I’m probably going to work on this is at a Playday or a Retreat, so why not just do it, right?
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I didn’t finish this spread—not even half way there—but you know what? I had so much fun doing this! It utterly delighted me to paint this, try to figure out *how* to tackle the various elements, and to let it be imperfect!
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That is the greatest lesson and gift of this entire travel journal: just doing it—in pen and watercolor, totally “unforgiving” media!—is giving me great practice in intentional imperfectionism! My drawings of photographs don’t look like the photographs, and whereas 30, 20, even 10 years ago that would have terribly upset me (so much that I probably wouldn’t have even made the attempt at all—can you say “perfectionist paralysis”?), today I really *enjoy* my wobbly inaccuracies! Now they *delight* me, because I see that they are what give my drawings character.
It also doesn’t hurt that this journal is of our trip to Paris, where we saw paintings by Matisse and Modigliani, et al, *whose portraits did not look like photos of their subjects*!!!!
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I’m not interested in being a camera. I have a camera for that. I’m interested in capturing *feelings*. And it delights me that my journal does that.
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