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That’s a nice hobby

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    That’s a nice hobby

    For some unknown reason I got in the mood to try oil painting about 2 years ago. I bought all the necessary supplies and watched videos before commencing on my first painting. The first started off well. People said, “the sky looks really great”. But then when it came to details and the foreground i shelved the project for 2 years.

    This winter a friend was out walking her dog in the snow at sunset and she caught such a beautiful picture I got inspired again. This project has had its ups and down. I get rolling and the fatigue hits and suddenly the brush drags down the painting and onto the floor.

    But, aside from the innate challenges of trying to do something like that it’s the things people say. For example:

    That’s a nice hobby.

    That should keep you from getting depressed.

    You will learn how eventually.

    Looks like a good start.

    At least with oils you can fix it.

    I thought, ‘these people mean well’ but I couldn’t help but fell a thud in my stomach.

    At the end on March my neurologist asked me what I had been doing for fun. I to,d him I had been oil painting but feel frustrated with the tremors in my hands. I didn’t expect it but he increased my dose of Primidone, which has helped with the ever worsening tremors.

    One day last week I had energy and felt like painting. I took my dose of Primidone and went to work. At some point in the process I felt like the MS had lifted and I was that 28 year I was working at a drafting table. I thought, ‘I am a professional architect. I spent 20years of my life drawing and painting and designing buildings. During my internship the bis would put something on my desk and said, I need this in 45 minutes. The triangles, templates and architectural scales would be flying. I had so much practice in those skills that they became second nature.

    Something took hold of me. I wasn’t going to succumb to being a participant in a ‘nice hobby’. I was fast and furiously mixing colors and making the forms and colors the way I wanted them. I worked and worked.

    When I forced myself to quit before I got tired and wrecked it I looked at it and through, ‘hmmmmmm, this looks more like the old me’.

    Then, a few people cam in and the first said, “oh my God, you could sell this!”

    The second didn’t have many words but he couldn’t stop looking at it.

    Anyway, I don’t know what the moral to the story is but this is what happened. I couldn’t bear to let MS get in the way of something so intrinsically part of me but someday it might. I don’t think I could bear to listen to those platitudes so I probably would quit.



    I’m glad your spirits are good enough to do that.

    #2
    Inspirational!

    Thank you for sharing this story about how you didn't give in or give up. It makes my heart smile!

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by palmtree View Post
      Something took hold of me. I wasn’t going to succumb to being a participant in a ‘nice hobby’. I was fast and furiously mixing colors and making the forms and colors the way I wanted them..

      This defines creativity. The poet, R.M. Rilke, in his Letters to a Young Poet (02/17/1903) said:

      "A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it"

      All words of criticism are immediately dismissed. Art is an experience that transcends. Art has a life of its own.

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        #4
        Thanks guys! I’m sorry about all the typos in that post. You were really supportive.

        It started as another thread on all the dumb things people say but it took a few twists and turns.

        Please disregard the last sentence. It makes no sense.

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          #5
          I've always admired someone who could paint. I have always wish I was that someone.
          God Bless Us All

          Comment


            #6
            Glad you are painting. I hope you stay inspired and continue to get joy out of it. Having the ability to pain is such a gift, both for the painter and those viewing the finished work. Enjoy.
            Kathy
            DX 01/06, currently on Tysabri

            Comment


              #7
              Ohhh i'm so glad you posted your experience.

              I have always (correction- when younger) enjoyed and was told how good i was at art.

              I used to spend literally days sketching etc etc.
              but life kind of got in the way and i hadn't touched any of my art stuff for years.

              a couple of years ago i tried to sit down and draw and that part of me just wouldn't work anymore.
              I cried.

              thank you

              Comment


                #8
                Carolinmf,

                Your post reminded me that most days I could never do anything like that. I’m either too tired, in too much pain or my hands are shaking and jerking around.

                One day I was trying so hard but ended up making it worse. I just left everything without cleaning up

                Then I wa in the kitchen cooking and glanced around the room. One thing grabbed my attention. It was the piece of cardboard with waxed paper on it that I had used for a palette that caught my eye.

                I took a picture of it with my phone and looked at it by enlarging it and traveling around the terrain. I enlarged it and cropped the composition that I liked.

                It was a moment of awe. The painting I had done was not on the canvas. The art was the palette. I imagined it blown up and hanging in a gallery with rich people standing around it drinking champagne. So it goes.

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