When I stepped into my first drawing class at rmit, you could almost smell the fear in the room. I think a lot people (including myself) chose their easel, charcoal, eraser and paper while quietly gripped with terror. But I hand it to the teacher as he totally turned most of us around in a few weeks. He gave us minimal technical instruction and never touched our drawings to correct or change them, but he had this mantra that we all started to adopt in our own way. His instructions to us were something like this: Be in the moment. Enjoy the process. Don't anticipate the outcome. See the subject, don't just look at it. And when you have finished the drawing, don't judge it through your expectations but appreciate it for what it is.
Now that 2009 has officially started with the first day back at work, I have resolved to start making the changes in my life that I have always wanted to but somehow couldn't do before. Most significantly, as of February I have cut back my day job hours so I have more time to develop my knitting and textile work.
I have often thought about the advice from the drawing class and how it really applies to everything, not just drawing. It's not easy to truly live your life by those principles but I've been trying and am definitely in a better place for it.
2009 is going to be a good year.
