Screw Your Passion, Follow Your Bliss – mixed media birds

sit.stand.fly. mixed media birds from start to finish, 15″ x 30″, $300

I just read this article, “Screw Finding Your Passion”, by Mark Manson. He starts out like this:

“…(When you were a kid) If you loved looking for bugs, you just did that. There was no second-level analysis of, ‘Well, is looking for bugs really what I should be doing with my time as a child? Nobody else wants to look for bugs, does that mean there’s something wrong with me? How will looking for bugs affect my future prospects?’ There was no bullshit. If you liked something, you just did it.”

I would like to spend my life just rolling from one bug finding mission to another. But isn’t it dangerous, following our bliss? If left to my own, I might just sit around all morning, drinking tea and writing and reading, and then napping, and then walking in the sun. How will laying around reading and painting affect my future prospects?

Detail of sit.stand.fly

This much I know: I have always wanted to have a camping van. To drive to all the beautiful places in this country, and wake up with sleepy hair, throwing open the door to let the steam of my coffee float up over my face in the morning sun. Drawing and hiking with my son. Laughing and throwing footballs in the red desert sand.

Maybe we don’t allow ourselves enough bliss. Maybe guilt and duty get in the way. Maybe we’d all be better off if we walked around a little more blissed out during the day.

When I started painting these mixed media birds, I let the process of it bliss me out. The black ink lazily lolling along in a birdish shaped trail. I tore some pages and mixed some pretty colors. They were really scary to paint because I had no idea if they would turn out all right. Which is another goal – letting go of attachment to the end result.

But really. These birds. They are just breadcrumbs, a trail to my bliss here this weekend. And following our bliss – we should really do that more often.

What makes your blissful? Leave a comment below, I’d love to know…

 This painting is available for purchase. Email me here.