24 Comments

I'm wondering about the ways doing one kind of art feeds another. Even if it doesn't come out the way you want , did making the painting open up a perspective on your writing? Sometimes just stepping outside my comfort zone shakes things up in a good way for me but I don't do it anywhere near enough. You've done music, writing , drawing, painting and probably other kinds of art I'm not aware of. At the very least it gives you wonderful writing material.

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Related to both your painting and your writing this week- Karen Rinaldi’s book “(It’s Great To) Suck at Something” about learning to surf and learning to be okay at being bad at it really helped reframe some of this stuff for me!

And those are definitely waves!

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That painting is beautiful!

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Oct 3, 2021Liked by Lyle McKeany

Always makes me smile

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I love the name of the painting 😂 This is a light bulb moment: "I don’t think my urge to excel is inherently bad, but along with it, I need to strive to be as good at relaxing as I am at other things." Could you write more about this? As I was reading this piece, I was thinking to myself, what's the point in being good at things if you're not happy or enjoying yourself. Can you take a similar self-critical approach to being good at relaxing, being happy, being at peace, and enjoying yourself? Or is it a different gear entirely?

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I’m right there with you. And usually with me I get frustrated and give up too quickly. I’m just not a patient person. But occasionally I dig in. I think your painting is great, especially the flowers. And I don’t know how long you’ve been doing this, but you’re already far better than I am at drawing, But I’m in the Nishant Jain “Just do it every day until you don’t suck” school. (OK I paraphrased heavily there! 🤣 ) Seriously though, I know that to get good at anything you have to practice. I can only hope that one day I can paint half as well as you can. 🙂

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We have that self-competitive/ I'm gonna go pro gene in common. I think it's like peanut butter on a PB and J.

Necessary ingredient in just the right amount, which is subjective, obviously, but you know when there is too much or the bread can't bear the weight of it.

I'm not a fan of the painting, but I see good elements and plenty of potential. Honestly, water scenes don't really do it for me so even if Bob Ross painted it I wouldn't love it ( but I didn't want to skirt the question either ).

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I like that painting. :)

I resonate with what you're saying here. I love to learn things, and I love to be good at doing things. I actively hate being bad at things. As a self-taught artist, I think there are skills that take time to develop, and others that don't. But what's surprising is that there are such differences in the particular skills we are patient with, and others to which we don't give enough time. My struggles with my acoustic guitar stand in sharp contrast to my patience with art and becoming a better artist in small, daily increments.

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dude it is a good painting

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This piece makes me think about my lack of worrying whether I win a game when playing with friends. Even though I love winning (who doesn't?), when it's low stakes with friends, I can pretty much relax about it, and it bothers me when others let their competitiveness get in the way of fun. I'm not above a little trash talk, though, TBH. I realize this is an adjacent topic, but since you mentioned games....

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