{"id":2701,"date":"2014-10-21T08:18:41","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T15:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/?p=2701"},"modified":"2016-02-16T14:31:34","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T22:31:34","slug":"october-21-2014-firsts-beginnings-starting-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/october-21-2014-firsts-beginnings-starting-out\/","title":{"rendered":"October 21, 2014 &#8211; Firsts, beginnings, starting out"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fcbkbttn_button\">\n                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/plugins\/facebook-button-plugin\/images\/standard-facebook-ico.png\" alt=\"Fb-Button\" \/>\n                            <\/a>\n                        <\/div><div class=\"fcbkbttn_like \"><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/october-21-2014-firsts-beginnings-starting-out\/\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\" layout=\"standard\"  width=\"225px\" size=\"small\"><\/fb:like><\/div><\/div><p>Listen to this post:<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-2701-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/20141021-Post-1.m4a?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/20141021-Post-1.m4a\">http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/20141021-Post-1.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>The first \u201cLife in Full Color\u201d retreat was just this past weekend. I\u2019m still so filled with it that I\u2019m not sure all there is to share of it. I\u2019m still like a fish in the ocean \u2013 not conscious of the fact that there\u2019s anything besides water to live in. Eight of us gathered at Vinegrove, a private vineyard in the west part of Healdsburg. It is just what I imagine as \u201cthe wine country\u201d \u2013 acres of vines, a huge persimmon tree \u2013 full of orange fruit, chickens, a lovely flower garden \u2013 (there were still roses!) with fun bright-colored furniture and gravel paths. Plus a freshly and beautifully remodeled barn-loft looking out onto it all, which was our studio for the weekend. All this wrapped in only the sound of the birds and a very occasional airplane.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/vinegrove.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2704 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/vinegrove-e1455661310211.jpg\" alt=\"vinegrove\" width=\"600\" height=\"339\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/vinegrove-e1455661310211.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/vinegrove-e1455661310211-300x170.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nThere were seven participants-painters-artists, two of which are regular painters in our weekly groups, two had had taken a Saturday class with me \u2013 relatively new painters, but have painted some. And three who had never before taken watercolor brush to paper. I watched them swish the brush in color and take away the whiteness of the paper. It\u2019s a thrilling experience \u2013 to make your mark, to transform something in this way. It\u2019s a curious thing for me \u2013 what is it in us that has us want, desire, even long to do this? It\u2019s not watercolor, or even painting, for everyone, but it seems that we have factory-installed an impetus to effect change on our world \u2013 especially to create something where there wasn\u2019t before.<\/p>\n<p>When I\u2019m out showing my work I often hear people say that they could never do what I do because they have no talent. I have written about talent a bit in the web-page about my weekly groups, but after watching people see their first work this weekend, with varying combinations of delight and judgment, I wanted to explore this idea of talent further. I looked it up online and discovered some interesting meanings. The original ancient Greek meaning was \u201ca weight, especially of gold, or a unit of money.\u201d Hmmm\u2026 a way to parcel out value. Much later, in Old French it meant \u201cwill, inclination or desire.\u201d Double hmmm.<\/p>\n<p>We do value talent like gold. The meaning of the word now is a \u201cmarked natural ability or skill.\u201d It\u2019s as if we are either blessed with it from birth or not. The thing for me is <em>how do we know we have talent, if we\u2019ve never even tried something<\/em>? What do you think this painting here would say about the innate talent of the artist who painted it?<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/plumeria-painted-on-lanai.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2702 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/plumeria-painted-on-lanai-e1455661345535.jpg\" alt=\"plumeria painted on lanai\" width=\"600\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/plumeria-painted-on-lanai-e1455661345535.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/plumeria-painted-on-lanai-e1455661345535-300x220.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nI painted it about 20 years ago. If I judged my \u201ctalent\u201d upon this piece, I might be still slogging myself to the city working in Information Architecture in corporate IT! But there was and is something in me \u2013 in us that has us keep at it. I kept painting and evolving as a painter \u2013 gaining skills and confidence and coming upon this thing I call \u201cLife in Full Color\u201d that I express with my artwork.<\/p>\n<p>There are skills to be gained, there is a craft to what we do. There\u2019s so much to learn in working with the paint, paper and especially water. Then there is color \u2013 and composition. The stuff of art-making. Beginning work is always beginning work and worth celebrating, like a child\u2019s first steps. But it\u2019s never the work of an experienced hand and eye. The more we do it, the more refined our capacity becomes to work with the materials and our vision &#8211; what we want to \u201csay\u201d with what we create &#8211; clarifies.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s more sticking with it than it is anything God-given. And what keeps us doing that comes back to the Old French meaning of \u201ctalent.\u201d (Being a huge Francophile, I love that it was Old <em>French<\/em>!) It\u2019s the <em>desire<\/em>, the <em>will<\/em>, and the <em>inclination<\/em> to paint! It also is linked to what we love. I LOVE watercolor. I love how it moves, I love the purity of paper and color\/pigment. I have no choice, it has me. And I love what I paint \u2013 flowers, fruit, colorful, artful food, sweet doggy faces. We don\u2019t choose what we love, it chooses us. I cannot will myself to respond to slate grey the way I do magenta-pink!<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what I have come to believe \u2013 those of us who make art have been blessed not by \u201cmarked natural abilities or skills\u201d so much as we have hearts filled with such <em>desire to make art<\/em> and such love for color and shape, or for our subjects that we stick to it. It follows that what it is we are here to say comes into form. If this love and desire is in you, follow it! If there\u2019s something stopping you, I\u2019m here to give you permission. Make your mark!<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to this post: The first \u201cLife in Full Color\u201d retreat was just this past weekend. I\u2019m still so filled with it that I\u2019m not sure all there is to share of it. I\u2019m still like a fish in the ocean \u2013 not conscious of the fact that there\u2019s anything besides water to live in. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>October 21, 2014 - Firsts, beginnings, starting out - Life in Full Color<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/october-21-2014-firsts-beginnings-starting-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"October 21, 2014 - Firsts, beginnings, starting out - Life in Full Color\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Listen to this post: The first \u201cLife in Full Color\u201d retreat was just this past weekend. 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