Are Your Scribbles Ugly?

I saw an article about a woman from Mexico whose 4 year old Granddaughter gave her some pearls of wisdom while she was painting. She kept track of the advice while she would paint or draw and wrote it down so it was easy to comprehend.

. Take some paint, some colors, and with your paintbrush, put one color on your paper and take another color on top. Mix it and you'll find a new color is comin' up.

Mixing colors is a new thing for me. Music has always been very serious for me, but my friendships are very silly while most of my writing remains philosophical. I just realized that the new material I am working on is starting to blend all these areas of my life. I never thought you could blend them all, but really if we couldn’t, Tim Burton movies wouldn’t be so popular!

. When I don't have anything to do and get bored, I start painting and then I just can't stop and it makes me feel good.

Does it get any easier than that?

. Take any piece of string. It doesn't matter what kind. Cut it if it's anything like yarn. Put chalk or paint all over it. Put your finger on the very top and grab the other end of the little thing that's stickin' out and pull. Press it on the paper. Then you have the beautiful marking of paint or chalk on the paper.

Trying new things is so scary for us. We think we have to wait until we have money or more material to work with. Just like small craft pieces around our house, we have things within our own character that we can pull from to create something new and beautiful.

. Please take your paintbrush and some paint. Paint whatever you want. Scribbles can be very pretty.

This is such a great pearl. Even our scribbles can be pretty.

. Take markers, some friends and a big piece of paper. Take turns drawing on the paper. Don't fight on whatever somebody draws.

Including friends and being open to what they have to contribute can surprise us!

. Go outside and pick some flowers. Press the flower or leaves while dragging them across your piece of paper. A surprise will come out of the flower.

It’s interesting to me that she saw a use for a flower besides simply being pretty. We should begin to look at people this way!

. Get some wash-off markers and draw a tattoo on your arm, your legs, your chest or even on your forehead. Don't wash it off.

This is the classic case of throwing caution to the wind. We are taught to make sure we simply stay clean at all times!

. With a pencil you can draw a mountain, a dog, a fish, a stream, children going for an Easter egg hunt or you could draw anything with a pencil. When you're done, put it wherever you want to put it.

…and all you need is a pencil… ;)

. Take paint and paintbrush and water and then take your wet paintbrush and put it in any color and just make little twirly lines with your paintbrush. Put your paintbrush into the water and then into another color, and then back into the water. Now your water has color. Now just shake it over your paper and make little dots and it won't be water anymore. It will be paint. If you like the color of your water, just draw with it. Sometimes it looks like a different color on your paper, but it's still pretty.

It’s another analogy like the flower where she saw another use for the water. It shows ingenuity and attentiveness.

. Find a stick and take it home and take a piece of paper and a bottle of grown-up ink. Put your stick into the ink bottle and on your paper. Just make funny lines and the ink will come off the stick on the paper. It's pretty hard to make one, but you can make a face, a heart or a person drawing with ink. I'm just giving an example, but you can make a watermelon or anything else you want to make with ink. And you can always scribble.

I love that she gave some ideas, but also gave permission to just scribble!

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It’s funny how we don’t really return to this simple thinking until we grow old. When I look at her advice and apply it to my life, it seems to be pretty solid! Why don’t we go to them more often instead of paying that $200/hr?

Instead of waiting for life to drop off all the materials we think we need, why don’t we realize that life HAS given us the materials we need already?

We are equipped…
Karen :)

“There is a Japanese proverb that literally goes 'Raise the sail with your stronger hand,' meaning you must go after the opportunities that arise in life that you are best equipped to do.” ~Soichiro Honda

(Soichiro was the founder the Honda Motor Company, but he and his wife were both pilots. He also liked to ski, hang-glide & go ballooning at the age of 77 and was an accomplished artist.)