I didn't paint at all today. There I admitted it! Probably a good step for me. However, today was an important day in my artistic career, I think. Because art isn't just about execution but also about inspiration. In the beautiful movie I saw tonight, Local Color, the apprentice asks the master to comment on his painting and the master tells him "it's not speaking clearly and, because it's not, I don't know what you're trying to say." Another artist who was at the movie said she thought a major theme was "awareness," citing how the master showed the apprentice how to see that clouds were not white by showing him a white hankerchief and making him see the comparison.

I am aware of how much inspiration I've been receiving lately that I believe will influence my future paintings. (maybe even tomorrow) Like a lot of what the apprentice learned from the master in Local Color.

Besides that movie, the play "33 Variations" that I saw last week at the Ensemble Theatre. A week later, I'm still thinking about the woman who wondered whether Mozart loved the waltz he wrote the variations on or was making fun of it. Remembering how the play made me aware of all that lives on after death. And I'm thinking about it in the context of another creation that's having a great influence on me now and that's the novel "Luncheon of the Boating Party" by Susan Vreeland.

Many times inspiration comes without awareness. But it's exciting tonight to be so aware of the soul-touching inspiration I've received from these 3 other works of art: a film, a play and a novel. I believe seeds from those works will flower in paintings I have yet to create, so I'm excited about what I'll work on tomorrow.