PAINTING FLOWERS

Allen Montague (Allen, if you read this, I take the opportunity to thank you) is a brilliant artist and teacher in Raleigh.  His words, “Well then, don’t try to paint flowers” are now my mantra for all sorts of things, like writing blogs.  But I’ll get to that in a moment.

I was taking an acrylic painting class.  (Yes, Hugh Mouse thinks he’s an artist.)  We were all painting a big flower on our respective canvases.  I was slapping paint around and feeling kind of unequipped, so I looked around for Allen.  When he eventually walked over, I plaintively (maybe a little whiningly) told him, “I try to paint flowers but they don’t look like flowers.”

All he said was, “Then don’t try to paint flowers.”  Awareness bloomed (no pun intended) in my stiff, stilted psyche.  Then I painted the best flower painting of my life and even stepped into a brand new style of painting for me.

That mantra pops up from time to time.  Like today.  I was thinking how my recent blog stories just aren’t like they used to be, and I told myself, “Dummy,” (that’s my own words, not the guru’s), “don’t try to write stories.”  And guess what.  Today, about four stories in a row poured out of my mouse brain!  Hallelujah!

Don’t try to paint flowers.  Sounds dumb, but it’s profound.  I guess it’s a mouse thing.