Remaining motivated can be a hard call at times. Creative people can be like boats, tossed about in the storms of life, as they sail for peaceful and fruitful shores. Their craft may have an excess of anchors, which dig into the sand and hold them back, so it is easy to get disillusioned. There are several versions of a saying, attributed to Babatunde Olatunji, and I particularly like this version “The clock is running. Make the most of today as time waits for no one. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift. That’s why it is called the present.”
Today is always going to be the best time to be educating the mind, which is powerful and responsive to the best efforts to motivate and enrich us. Every day we can read something new, experiment, explore and best of all, research what gives us passion. I found this alone the most inspiring of all the tools for creativity.
Below is my painting shortlisted for the 2010 Norvill Art Prize for landscape.