Friday, January 29, 2010

Help Create a Masterpeice and Learn

It's True ...

Last night, I had the enlightening opportunity to attend an Alumni Mentoring Event at Wilkes University. It was my first time, and I have to say, I was inspired to say the least. So many students aiming to be better, reaching out PAST their comfort zone to meet new people.

The best is when one eager student told me she is majoring in writing and wants to learn how to be more creative as she knows she can use it to teach or write. I asked her, "When was the last time you wrote something?" She said, "It's been a while". It made me think. How many of us have stopped 'creating' something in our respective fields...

Seth Godin, in his new book LinchPin, discusses how we need to do more ART not WORK.

By my definition, most art has nothing to do with oil paint or marble. Art is what we're doing when we do our best work.

I leave you with this... Be generous... give the artful gift of generosity and volunteer to mentor someone. It's truly reciprocal in nature - the Mentee/Mentor relationship.

In every art beginners must start with models of those who have practiced the same art before them. And it is not only a matter of looking at the drawings, paintings, musical compositions, and poems that have been and are being created; it is a matter of being drawn into the individual work of art, of realizing that it has been made by a real human being, and trying to discover the secret of its creation. ~ Ruth Whitman