A bit of History before I talk about this painting…

In My Favorite Murder, Episode #162 (Prom Queen), Karen and Georgia jokingly told people to paint this picture McKenzie Brelyn posted on Instagram. I’ve been practicing watercolor for a while now, and Rachel and I will be seeing them live in Pittsburgh on Friday, so I decided I’d give it a go.

Here’s a link to the episode.

On to my notes/explanation/lessons learned…

This is without argument one of the worst paintings I�ve made yet. I�m not fishing for compliments, I�m trying to prove that the only way to achieve mastery is by persevering through failures. I haven�t proven my point yet, because I haven�t achieved mastery. But I am going to keep trying.

I have been painting almost every day for, what, 6 months now? My first attempt at the Farm Road was on Sept 4, 2018. I have painted for, oh let�s say an average of 2 hours every day for six months. It�s probably more like 3/day, but I�ll go with a conservative estimate. That�s 1,460 hours total. It feels like I�ve been at this for so long that I should be good by now… but that�s the lie. Six months is nothing. The true masters keep at it for decades. It doesn�t take decades of practice to become a master, but it definitely takes longer than you want. If you quit, then you achieved something. You got better at it than 99% of the world, because 99% of people won�t even start. But mastery is rare. It�s not rare because there are only a few special savants born every generation, masters are rare because 99.99% of people don�t keep pushing through the plateau. They get frustrated with a lack of progress after what feels like a long time, and think well, I�m just not talented enough.

That�s how it feels right now. But that�s the whole point. That�s why I�m posting all of these here. I�m not trying to showcase my successful paintings, I�m trying to showcase everything. The good ones – the shitty ones. So if I am able to stick it out and keep practicing, if I ever do achieve that level of mastery I�m after, then I�ll be able to say with confidence that talent is a lie. There is no such thing. Talent is just a word we use to justify giving up.

I�m not saying giving up is bad. It�s fine to give up! Giving up means you tried! It�s not practical to become a master of many things. I�m saying you shouldn�t give up because you think you don�t have the talent you need to achieve your goals. Instead, forget about that lie. Throw it away, and push through. Try again. And again. And again… maybe for a decade. At some point, you�ll achieve the goals you had set when you started, though by then, you�ll probably have loftier goals in mind…

I was thinking as I painted this muddy overworked jumbled mess of a way to capture what I�m thinking, this is what I came up with:

Dedication is the mother of consistency. Consistency is the mother of spontaneity. Spontaneity is the mother of mastery. And Talent is a monster under the bed.

I�ll have to keep plugging away to see if I�m right. Who knows – maybe I�ll find out that talent is real, and after no matter how many months/years of practice I�ll never achieve my goals. 

Wouldn�t that suck?