I know I've said it before but, the time spent creating artwork, at least for me, is time spent in a sort of meditation.
(except you don't have to sit stone still).
The mind is free and clear to navigate the universe, (which is really the point) and discover new stuff about it and yourself to help make you a better person.
(easily and affordably available if you care for a copy)
© 2012 Arthur A. Winstanley
Trust me when I tell you, while I drew this piece, "My Hometown", (for a T-shirt design - that is actually selling pretty well) it was a weeks long meditation.
My mind had the time-less-ness to explore the universe in places I would never have imagined. . .
I recently read Chris Matthews' latest book, "Jack Kennedy - Elusive Hero". It's a good and a quick read and
I recommend it.
It doesn't paint JFK as a hero (or a villain for that matter) just a frail human, like the rest of us. A charismatic and ruthless politician to be sure but just a man with foibles, a bad back problem and Addison's disease. (he was not a healthy man)
From Matthews' perspective, I liked Jack Kennedy.
(I was only 8 when he was elected and 11 when he was executed - so what the hell did I know then?) But as I thought about it later, I had a sense that he really did have the best in mind for all of us and, if he hadn't been shot, he likely wouldn't have lived out his second term (which he surely would have won).
All the same, I thought (counting backwards on my fingers)
if JFK were alive today, he'd be 95 years old.
That thought got me on a roll. . .
If they were alive today, Bobby Kennedy (one of the two men who's lives I admire most in this life) would be 87.
Marilyn Monroe would be 86.
Jimmi Hendrix would be 70.
Janis Joplin would be 69.
And Ernest Hemingway (a local favorite - born, I'm pretty sure, in the same year as my own grandfather) would be 113 years old.
(Tempus Fugit, aye?)
As the weeks wore on, drawing an airplane, sailboat, palm trees and a pelican, then getting the damned turtle just right, my head went to more abstract thoughts. (that I won't get into right now)
But, and again I can only speak for myself, that's the beauty of the creative process.
You don't worry about the rent or the Keys Energy bill or the girlfriend you accidentally pissed off over dinner the night before last. Your mind is totally is free!
It's emotionally liberating and comforting, sometimes lucrative and, it's fun.
And that's why I keep doin' it.
