Day 45: Going Skiing
Well, it’s an amazing day in Florence, it’s snowing! So far it’s just that wet stuff and it isn’t sticking, but hopefully tonight it will keep snowing and then we can have a nice blanket to go and paint tomorrow, that would really be fantastic.
It snowed a lot for a few days here in Florence (a rare thing) back in December but I missed it, so maybe this time I’ll have the chance to paint it: I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Anyhow, you can see I am prepared with my ski boots, so as soon as I get the chance I’ll grab these and go up to the mountains and go skiing.
I wish I were better at skiing, I have mixed feelings about it. Sometimes it’s just so fun, but then other times when I attempt a slope that is just past my ability I get nervous and scared, and then tend to fall and not enjoy the experience of making my way down the slope.
The last time I went skiing I was thinking about this and the things that skiing and painting (and I’m sure many other things that are challenging) have in common. Of course they all take practice to become competent and feel comfortable enough to even begin to enjoy them. At first you just feel akward and uncomfortable and don’t have any fun at all, but then I guess there is something that tells us that the rewards are worth sticking with something long enough to get proficent in it, that if we do you can feel on top of the world.
Skiing, the act of sliding down a hill on these flat things at a pretty fast pace seems silly, but no sillier than painting a picture, just for the sake of it, just for the fun or challenge or experience of the thing, just because one is called to do it. The act just somehow makes you remember that you’re alive.
There is this tension that exsists in skiing that also happens while painting. If I get nervous and think I’m scared or that the slope is too hard, I tense up and start to fall and get no enjoyment out of the experience. There is a whole immediate connection between my mind and body. If I tell myself that I’m fine, I’m doing good and that this is actually supposed to be fun, then I can relax and go down the hill. Maybe I fall, or maybe I make new headway in my ability, but either way I am enjoying the moment and my surroundings. This kind of tension between being vigil but relaxed, like thinking but keeping your mind empty at the same time and open to encounter whatever is there in the painting and paint it as I see it and not as I think it should be, this is the challenge in painting and I think where all the learning really happens.
Boy, picking a ski boot just to be fun about the snow here today, I didn’t realize what a challenge this would be, and an exercise in not only drawing but values. The boot was painted mostly in black and white, and it was hard!
Hope you’re having good weather wherever you are. If you’re in Florence, call me and let’s go skiing this week!
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