Lord, Teach Me Patience.....and Hurry!

Last week I set out to make some art, because I really haven't painted in a month. You know the excuses: the holidays, the after-holidays, spending the holiday money, preparing for the next holidays.....something like that. 

I thought I would just do some simple acrylic pouring art. And why not use a straw and blow the paint around? There was no goal - just to create something that wasn't terribly ugly. I came up with this:

Fair, right? It looks like a marbled cheesecake. Task complete. 

I set it on my table to dry, went about my day, and came back a few hours later to check on it. It looked dry so I hung it on the wall, eager to accent a new little office set up with some bright color.

Errr......too eager.....

This is what the painting looked like after it had slowly dripped down the wood canvas, over the beveled edge, onto my shelf and I had wiped the mess clean. (So much for creating something that wasn't terribly ugly...)

I guess it wasn't dry enough. 

This, friends, is actually the image of my artistic life. I stink at patience. I want to see the result but I don't always want to invest in the process. This is why I cannot keep time when I sit down to play a piece of music: I don't want to learn it; I just want to hear what it sounds like. This is also why some of my paintings are less than the quality they could be: I grow tired of the time and effort it takes to create something truly great, and I settle for something "good enough". 

Can anyone relate?

I have a hard time letting my food cook for 2 minutes in the microwave without stopping it early.
Waiting takes so much time! 😂

Here is a little quote I have always loved, from Mother Angelica, that gives me some hope:

"They think a holy person never feels impatient. Well, there is not an Italian born who is patient, and since there are more Italian saints than any other nationality, there must be something about being impatient that makes you holy."

 

After all that, I tried again: 

It's definitely a totally different design now, but that's the call of an artist - to look at a mess and see something that can be restored, something that has great potential, something that is still beautiful. 

This time I let it dry overnight, and now it hangs where it should without making an awful mess. Lesson learned.