A Work In Progress

A woman came into my studio years ago and offered some unsolicited advice regarding two unfinished paintings. She said, “I hate to tell you this, but that cat’s front leg is too long. You’re going to need to shorten it.” And then looking at another messily sketched painting she said, “I’ll be honest, that hat’s a little too tall for that tiny lady. And I don’t think it needs that bow.”

She didn’t realize she was walking right into the middle stages of creation—a place of open door possibilities—where nothing is fully determined. It’s a murky place where it’s easy to get turned around and even easier to get shut down. Not only was the woman’s advice not helpful, it was actively unhelpful because it introduced a doubtful voice at the moment it could do damage and was unlikely to do good. 

There’s a time to seek advice and a time to faithfully put one foot in front of the other (and maybe not let any opinionated, outspoken people into your studio). Also there’s a time to offer advice and a time to sit in the curiosity of what will happen next.

I usually don’t ask people for their opinions when I’m in the early or even middle stages of a painting. Not even the people I trust and rely upon the most. That’s because those stages are especially based on faith, not on sight. Often, it isn’t possible to accurately judge or give advice about a work in progress until later on, unless you’re the one creating it, and even then it’s guesswork. Maybe paintings are like people in that way. It’s often nearly impossible to see what you’re looking at when you peer into another person’s life critically. Maybe those times when I’ve looked critically at someone, God was whispering—just wait, Amy, she’s not finished yet. Or, he’s going to be wonderful—you’ll see! 

We are blind to the beauty that’s just around the bend. But God IS at work. Always. And that’s what we need to hold onto.  

Philippians 1:6—"being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

~Amy