Got talking with Nomad today...

Nomad and I had a lovely conversation about art and painting and painting styles....

and one thing that came up was about fallow periods, times when you hibernate, times when production is low.

These times, and I agree that they are inevitable for most artists...the obvious Picasso exception comes up, he doesn't seem to have passed a moment without working on art, but maybe if you look closely there were a few fallow minutes here and there, maybe a quarter hour or so.....

By the same token, there is a work ethic associated with the entire process of creating, the admonition to show up every day, to blast in the hours.

Then there is the comment that to achieve real mastery you need to log 10,000 hours of practice.  I dread to think how many days/weeks/years that is...actually, if you go here, it isn't that bad.  Indeed, almost seems manageable.

So where is the balance in this?  Respecting fallow periods, but also showing up every day?

I think the balance lies in acknowledging that not everything is going to be good, some will be downright bad.  Sometimes there will be periods when not much good is happening at all.  There will be times of great advance, and times when you continue where you are.

There can be great joy in the times when you continue, and tremendous joy, and challenge, in the times of growth....