Pushing Through

(left)
"Supports"
Carbon pencil with chalk highlights
on grey paper 12"x17"
©2015 Diana Moses Botkin

Days turn into weeks; weeks into months. Time passes like rivers flow to the ocean. We all have it. We all lose it. Or use it.

(left) "Moonlit"
Charcoal with chalk highlights
on grey paper 17"x12"
©2015 Diana Moses Botkin

I've been laboring for months to find that place again where the mind tells the hand what to do and it's done with ability and intelligence. Various concerns have taken the forefront the past couple of years and time to draw and paint has suffered. The only way to make it better is to work it.

After scores of attempts and many sketches destined for the fire, the skills are peeking through. I'm finally feeling like I remember how to draw.

(left) "Secluded"
Charcoal with chalk highlights
on grey paper 17"x12"
©2015 Diana Moses Botkin

It's easy to let a skill get out of practice. Just let it slip, let it slide awhile, whatever it is... playing a musical instrument, dancing,... drawing, painting.

The good news is that it's not impossible to renew art skills. Although it has felt like giving birth every day, I see progress. Those earlier sketches which seemed so clumsy and ill-made can go in the fire and no one even has to see them. Oh that all our failures would be so easily swept away!

(right) "Slope"
Charcoal with chalk highlights
on grey paper 12"x17"
©2015 Diana Moses Botkin