I just finished teaching at the John C. Campbell Folk School, in Brasstown, NC. It was a great weekend filled with great questions, tools everywhere and people who really wanted to learn. I was reminded of how much I have learned since I was a beginner in Calligraphy. My first teacher told us to keep our very first piece, put it somewhere safe. “That way, as you work and learn you can pull out that very first work and see how far you have come.” I still have mine and it is pretty sad…compared to where I am now. And yes, it does remind me about ALLLLL the things I have learned since then. It also reminds me to never stop learning and experimenting.
The group asked good questions, and showed up with pens and nibs they had bought or were given. We then spent time as a group looking at their pens and figuring out how to use them. It’s always fun to see what people are buying and how they may or may not want to utilize it moving forward. I helped one woman fill her Amazon car with tools like the ones I brought to class…she couldn’t wait to get home and get busy.
Enthusiasm is contagious. When people are excited, YOU get excited – or very annoyed. Yes I smiled as they had their first Ah HA! moments. We laughed as they goofed up, and they asked me about my current work. I shared my blog and reminded them that I was thirty-six years ahead of them…so have fun and get busy!
Those would be my words to you today….have fun and get busy. No matter what it is you do, be sure to have fun. Maybe not silly hats and goofy outfits fun, yet fun none the less! Somehow mistakes and learning go much better when we can laugh and enjoy the process. It also mens that to learn we have to get busy being ready to learn. Set the chaos of life aside, find the tools you want to learn, then give yourself grace as you read, try, do, fill ,and try some more. Whatever it is you do now, somewhere along your journey you had to learn how to do it. Never get too big to learn new things and build your skills. Never be afraid to learn and fail and try again. No one ever accomplished anything in life without failing and learning and doing.
Ann Art Gallery Blog 