Daily Paper Prompts 53 - 57.... okay, so I didn't finish them all.

The calendar page had turned to October by now and I was supposed to be done with all 60+ prompts but wasn't.  It was my decision to skip through some of them that were either too messy or that I did not have the right materials for.  I picked the last of the list that I thought I could get done relatively easily without extending too much into the month and so here is the finish line.

DPP 53 - Triangles.  My triangles were drawn with a Micron pen.

DPP 55 - Patterns on a Grid.  This required either very meticulous measuring to draw a grid or the happy realization that I actually did have some graph paper to work with.  Once again, done with Prismacolor pencils.

DPP 56 - Torn Paper Collage.  When I was in college, and the time I spent there is barely a memory now, I took a few art classes and in one of them I remember being assigned a collage.  To this day I don't remember what the actual assignment was but I know I spent a great deal of time on my interpretation of the assignment and was very pleased with the result only to be given a mediocre grade because it was not what the professor wanted.  I do believe that that was the last art class I took for a very long time.  If I were taking that class now and gotten the same result I think I would have fought back at the grade because I have learned over these years that I really don't have to please everyone.  It's more important to please myself even if the process of creating is the pleasing part and the result is less than perfect because that's how you get better at something.  We look at young children's art and see what beautiful results they get because they don't have that great fear of failing.  We acknowledge that they're learning.  They don't restrict themselves.  If they run out of yellow paint, they'll finish with green or blue or orange.  Adults are afraid of making mistakes, of running out of yellow paint and having to use green or blue or orange to finish.  I'm going to stop that thought now because I could go on about it but now is not the time. 

DPP 57 - One Word Journal Page.  I got out those Pink Peerless Watercolors again, and the nail art thin brush and scribbled away and then added my word. 

Believe that you can give yourself the opportunity to take on a challenge like this.  Believe that it doesn't have to be perfect....you're not getting graded.   You can make mistakes and go on or you can tear them up or tear out the page and try again.  You can do it and then go back and journal over it noting what you would change.  You can take an idea and make your own challenge out of it.  Or you might even find something that you like a lot and you want to do again and again but differently and make it your signature.  

Taking it out of it's intended context, in the words of Pink.....

"Where there is desire, there is gonna be a flame (the desire to create, the flame - your ideas)

Where there is a flame, someone's bound to get burned (your ideas being shared and judged)
But just because it burns, doesn't mean your gonna die (someone's dislike of what you do shouldn't stop you)
You gotta get up and try, and try, and try
Gotta get up and try, and try, and try
You gotta get up and try, and try, and try"