Sunday scribbles #7: Second vernissage at home.

So, last week was a banger! I know that I'm repeating myself, but lately there's something cool happening almost every week: an awesome painting I finished, some worthy feedback I received, a new idea which popped up, and much more good stuff. In a recent Rich Roll podcast with the admirable Alexi Pappas I've heard her say that we should see life as something which gives, rather than something which takes. A lot of the times we hear people complaining that life is hard and it keeps on taking. Well this has never been a view I have shared, because I tend to believe life is giving. Many of us are just hesitant in using those lemons to actually make lemonade. So in seeing the beauty of the lemons that life gives, I am once again going to write about the joy of a vernissage.

Last week I organised my second vernissage at home. Since I only planned on doing two vernissages, this was also the last one, at least for a while. There were two big reasons for organising these events at my place. The first is to make some money. Paint is really fucking expensive, holy moly! I started out using cheap paints to practice, but sooner than I expected I am using the quality needed for my works. The amounts of paint used to finish a work varies between 1 to 3 litres. This depends on the size of the canvas and the result I am trying to achieve. If I were to use the highest quality of paint, I would have been broke by now. Luckily I found a paint brand of decent quality which has all the good characteristics: an reasonable price, enough pigments to make colors pop out, good flow with the pouring medium I use, and a really nice range of colors. But still, the amount of money it takes, made it necessary to create some cashflow. Hence two vernissages at home for friends and family who already shared their opinions on what I am making. Because as I said in some previous Sunday scribbles: except for parents, no one will buy stuff they don't like, even if it is just to support you.

A second reason for organising these events was to experience direct and honest feedback. Up till now I have received some feedback where I asked it, but now I gave people the chance to see literally everything I have made thus far. Seeing the variety of styles I have tried, I considered it impossible that someone would like all my paintings. This was also the case. It's always nice to hear when someone loves your work, but when this is the only opinion you're getting, you're doing something wrong. At least this is what I believe. Liking a piece of art is so personal, that there will be stuff some people dislike. Even though this sounds rather weird, I was stoked to hear who disliked which painting. First or all this means that they are real friends. There's nothing worse with people saying they like something just to make you feel good, this actually makes you feel worse. Heck, if you think something is ugly or looks like absolute shit to you, you can tell me. And this is what I loved about these vernissages. Before they took place I thought I knew which paintings would be loved and which ones wouldn't. Wrong I was again. I love almost everything I make, I'm biased. But I was astounded to see the difference in what people loved. So when direct and honest feedback was a goal at these vernissages, I am happy to share it was achieved well beyond.

Now these were two goals for the vernissages: make money and get honest feedback. I can check off those boxes. But there was something else that made my day: sharing your passion. It is so much fun to share something you love with people. I always admire people who talk about stuff with passion, who don't just go through life. And if I were to be honest with you, I think deep down I am still trying to search that feeling. When hearing about it, it is a feeling that gives you meaning. Something that just pulls you forward. It may be comparable to gravity, with the difference that you can influence this yourself. This brings me back to the quote I live by about action which generates inspiration (also mentioned in the 'about me' section). The more time and effort you put into something, the more you get sucked into it. This may have a negative connotation, but I couldn't find any other words to best describe it. If anyone has some good English proverb for this, sure do share it with me. Passion is a heavily loaded word, and I am not sure if I will ever find my passion. I am one of those people who like too many different things to think of one thing as 'my passion'.

In the past this has been something that bothered me a lot. Only few people know about this. I try out a lot of things and I tend to quit them when I find something new. There's nothing wrong with this, but for me this was kind of bothersome. I love being good at stuff, and when you do a zillion things, you can be okay or maybe decent at everything, but not excel at one thing. I am now in the phase of my life where I am deliberately walking a select number of paths. The things I am doing now, I am doing with all the attention and time I have, and I noticed this makes me really fucking happy most of the time. Yes, you've read that right: most of the time. I started these Sunday scribbles with the Rich Roll podcast with guest Alexi Pappas, and so it seems nice to end with a quote from her book 'Bravey' :

"The rule of thirds was developed by Oregon Track Club Elite coach Ian Dobson. It dictates that you should have ⅓ of your training feeling good, ⅓ of your training feeling okay, and ⅓ of your training feeling “crappy." Spend too much time in any of these zones and your training becomes unbalanced. Too much time feeling bad and you risk burn out. Too much time feeling good means you aren’t pushing yourself enough in training. As with anything in running, the rule of thirds can also be applied to our life in general. Remembering the good can help us through those times where we aren’t feeling our best."