Looking Up

In an attempt to motivate myself yesterday, I was scrolling through a bunch of inspirational quotes on Pinterest (yep, I was in serious need of some inspiration), and came across this one:

So I'm trying one more time today. And maybe I'll try one more time tomorrow. But occasionally I find myself sitting against the wall in my little dormer-window painting corner just wishing this thing would paint itself. Sometimes it seems like the more I work on something, the worse it gets, but then again, maybe it's just me getting grumpy about the whole thing.

I know doing nothing won't make anything better. I have about a zillion ideas for paintings (if I had a dollar for every time the thought "I wanna paint that!" has run through my head...), and sometimes when I try to let those visions loose and find my skills sorely unfit for the job, it's more than a little frustrating :( 

I'm a firm believer that in order to learn to do something, you actually have to DO it (seems simple). So I'll keep showing up. Even if it makes me grumpy--learning curves hurt. I know that. And I keep reminding myself that I've never attempted a painting like this before. Never (well, not entirely true. I did start something similar a few years back on a much smaller scale, but it got trashed after about 2 hours). So why do I get so frustrated if I don't get it right on my first try? If after 30 hours of working on this thing, I decide it's just unsalvageable, then fine. At least I spent 30 hours practicing a skill. Keep trying. The end.