Getting Comfortable with Feeling Uncomfortable At 60
How can it be that I’m learning this at the age of 60?
Actually, I’m relearning it.
You can’t avoid feeling uncomfortable. I believe that comfort is not something to strive for, but a moment to enjoy before becoming uncomfortable again, because life is full of change, pain, challenges, and, well, discomfort. Every growth spurt, every new act, every changing season in our lives can feel uncomfortable. We’ve been sold on the idea of comfort and convenience with everything from lazy boy furniture, mac and cheese comfort food, and snuggly slippers. But growth and change, failure and success, solitude and intimacy can all feel uncomfortable at times and no amount of soft serve ice cream or at-home massage chairs will change the natural swing between feelings of comfort and discomfort.
Painting and art-making teach this because every time we create, the swing between feelings happens in just one day or with one project..Sometimes the challenge is skill level, sometimes it’s how to make time to create, sometimes it’s people’s feedback, sometimes it’s the inner critic, sometimes it’s the positive attention, or the selling or the not selling. Asking for help and advice can be uncomfortable, dealing with bookkeeping, strangers when networking, describing my work can feel uncomfortable until I do it enough times it grows a little less uncomfortable and for pocket of moments, maybe even comfortable or familiar, but then…it’s on to new things and uncomfortable again.
It isn’t just painting at my age that makes me feel uncomfortable at times. It’s talking to doctors about my health (in Spanish), making new friends, and speaking a language in a new country. It’s saying no or yes to activities with others. It’s working out, eating differently, family and marriage seasons, death of loved ones, politics, and menopause. ANd for me, dealing with technology, and more technology and then they change and upgrade the technology and i have to adapt again. .
I see a lot of people make their lives smaller to avoid all these ongoing challenges. This makes sense. The world seems to move faster as we slow. Our energy is limited. We just don’t care about some things as much as we used to care.
I also have many friends who come together to celebrate and commiserate about all the uncomfortable challenges as we bumble along in our “golden” years.
What’s my newest art challenge that brings up the comfortable/uncomfortable swing?
1) First time Illustrating a children’s book (over 30 pages to paint and digitally edit.)
2) 3 local shows in cafe venues in 2 months. My next show in November will feature animals.
Original ART for SALE. Order now for your holiday shopping!
I’m having great fun preparing a collection of pet and wild animal pictures for my November show. These are for sale, so contact me if you’d like one. The geese and sheep are painted in gouache; the owl in acrylic, and the penguin in watercolor. Using different paints keeps me from growing bored, but it can feel uncomfortable switching because they are very different in layering, drying, and flow. Usually, I see an image in my mind and immediately know which medium I want to try (acrylic, gouache, or watercolor). I also paint the same animal or image in several different mediums and compare them. For instance, I’ve painted geese in acrylic, watercolor, and now, this one, in gouache. I’ve done this with owls and pet animals. too.
For every painting I have for sale, there are many more stored in my art journals. The journal is a place to explore, mess up, and get used to be uncomfortable trying new things. It is a place of self-permission where we can make mistakes and discover new mark-making.
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Also in the next blog, I’ll showcase and discuss preparing for local art shows before my November exhibit. Th
Thanks, Marti