Simplicity

“One of my mantras –focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

~Steve Jobs

You ultimately make good work by making lots of work that isn’t very good, and gradually weeding out the parts that aren’t good.

Many, many things you try will simply not work. When I first started making art, I painted in oil, acrylic, watercolor, graphite, and colored pencil. I was trying to learn so many different mediums at once that I felt overwhelmed, like I couldn’t make any progress in one direction. I decided to narrow my ambitions and focus just on colored pencil. My work improved and I began to feel a lot more confident and satisfied in what I was doing!

Think of this analogy ~ when water flows unbridled, it has a tendency to spread thin and lose momentum. When water is restrained by a dam, it generates tremendous energy. Our vision is like water – if we narrow our creative scope and hone in on what we truly want to create, we become a powerhouse of creativity. We set ourselves up to be masters at our craft.