Perhaps It's Been Right in Front of You All Along

I have a tendency to make things way harder than they should be. I have to remind myself to just open my eyes and look right in front of me. The answer is often right there.

I tend to over think, over research and spend hours looking for a better answer. I think I am afraid to trust my own instincts and thus I have to make sure there isn't a better answer. It's silly because most times I end up right back where I was days earlier.

This past weekend we were in Venture and I spent some time hunting for sea glass. On Saturday morning I spent hours digging in the rocks with my foot trying to find that rare piece of aqua or cobalt blue glass. I came home with a lot of glass but it took a long time. On Sunday I decided to only look for glass on the top of the rocks. I literally stood there and waited for tone of the huge waves to come in. Then I collected all of the new glass brought to the shore with the wave. It was easy and fun and the pieces of glass were twice the size! And I found lots of aqua and cobalt blue!

In my workshops my students often claim "I can't find anything to paint!". That's when I tell them to head outside the studio and paint the first thing they see. The I tell them to turn to their right and paint that too. Then I suggest they turn again and paint that too.

It's amazing how the answer is usually right in front of us. So next time you are struggling, open your eyes and see what's staring right back at you. It just might be the answer you were looking for all along.