PLAY THE PIANO!!

When we walked out of the NWS luncheon Saturday, my husband noticed a beautiful grand piano in the hotel lobby.  It was draped with a crisp white linen cloth and had a little, but clearly worded note on the top:  "PLEASE DO NOT PLAY THE PIANO.  The Management"

It really struck a chord with him.  How many of us have some level of abilities and even some training or expensive tools to use them, but we don't" play the beautiful piano"?! We're afraid we won't be good enough or that we'll mess it up, so we let it sit idle in the corner.

NWS President, Mike Bailey has a great post on his blog with similar sentiments.  He says:

Mastery is not a trait someone is born with or is given as a gift. Every good artist I know puts in way more time than many folks do at a job. They dream about it at night. They read and study about it. They drill themselves in exercises and studies. They are often compulsive about it. They are willing to risk failure daily in order to have the opportunity to make a single success at painting. So, if you want to really compliment an artist (musician, dancer, actor, painter, sculptor etc.) let them know you appreciate their insatiable efforts to get better and better. It really is quite a cool way to live . . . . .it is most fulfilling!!

Read the entire post at http://mebaileyart.blogspot.com/2010/10/so-you-think.html.

I'm determined to pull off the cloth, sit down, practice and get better at whatever measure of talent I've been given.  It might not be pretty to begin with, but I'm going to put some brushes and paint on the paper daily and make some kind of music!