The following is from Dorothy Sayer's
Letters to a Diminished Church, from the first chapter, titled "What Do We Believe?"
-quote-
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things. That is the thundering assertion with which we start; that the great fundamental quality that makes God, and us with him, what we are is creative activity. After this, we can scarcely pretend that there is anything negative, static, or sedative about the Christian religion. "In the beginning God created"; from everlasting to everlasting. He is God the Father and Maker. And, by implication, man is most god-like and most himself when he is occupied in creation. And by this statement we assert further that the will and power to make is an absolute value, the ultimate good-in-itself, self-justified and self-explanatory.
How far can we check this assertion as it concerns ourselves? The men who create with their minds and those who create (not merely labor) with their hands will, I think, agree that their periods of creative activity are those in which they feel right with themselves and the world. And those who bring life into the world will tell you the same thing. There is a psychological theory that artistic creation is merely a compensation for the frustration of sexual creativeness; but it is more probable that the making of life is only one manifestation of the universal urge to create. Our worst trouble today is our feeble hold on creation. To sit down and let ourselves be spoon-fed with the ready-made is to lose our grip on our only true life and our only real selves.
-endquote-
Ever since I read that, I've been drawing and writing more freely. When I'm tempted to let it go for now and go do something mindless, I think, "To sit down and let myself be spoon-fed with the ready-made is to lose my grip on my only true life and my only real self." It's helped.
This is one of those books that nobody ever told me about growing up, though I've been in church my whole life.

If you read it, don't miss chapter 2 either, with "what other people think Christianity is." It's a riot.

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Once we know the number one, we believe that we know the number two, because one plus one equals two. We forget that first we must know the meaning of plus. ~Alphaville
Ari chan
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"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars."
- Les Brown
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Once we know the number one, we believe that we know the number two, because one plus one equals two. We forget that first we must know the meaning of plus. ~Alphaville
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If he's sparkly and fangless, he's a FAIRY, darling. Not a vampire.
If it's for an original character, I'm probably not up to it right now, sadly.
~tamtu is offering some pretty reasonable commission prices right now: [link]
You might check him out.
--
"Do good to all." - Blue Jean Quilts! - Artists' Hospital Doctor
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If he's sparkly and fangless, he's a FAIRY, darling. Not a vampire.
Okay, so I go to look at the page of someone who is supposedly stealing art and, of course, on the wall there is hundreds upon hundreds of posts by users yelling at the given art theif telling them why they're a bad person and how they should draw their own art and then in the middle of it all is one little post with the CC icon beside it with a link to ArtistsHospital. XD This is why you are so awesome.
Plus it's a safe bet they don't have access to quality instruction, encouragement, or art supplies... I've wanted to draw all my life, but I had to wait until I was 25 and could buy my own sketchbooks and pay for classes.
And honestly, it's easy to be nice to people online. It's the ones I kick out of the bathroom that it's tough to be good to.
OH OH WHICH REMINDS ME!! *runs off and comes back w/ book* Remember how I recommended "Artist's Way" and we had that conversation about values and such? Well, I found something that's been immensely helpful ever since I read it, so I'm gonna go ahead and spam my profile to quote bits of it. Um, I'm sorry if it's long, but I really found every sentence of it relevant, so here goes (and I won't be upset if you stop reading now
-quote-
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things. That is the thundering assertion with which we start; that the great fundamental quality that makes God, and us with him, what we are is creative activity. After this, we can scarcely pretend that there is anything negative, static, or sedative about the Christian religion. "In the beginning God created"; from everlasting to everlasting. He is God the Father and Maker. And, by implication, man is most god-like and most himself when he is occupied in creation. And by this statement we assert further that the will and power to make is an absolute value, the ultimate good-in-itself, self-justified and self-explanatory.
How far can we check this assertion as it concerns ourselves? The men who create with their minds and those who create (not merely labor) with their hands will, I think, agree that their periods of creative activity are those in which they feel right with themselves and the world. And those who bring life into the world will tell you the same thing. There is a psychological theory that artistic creation is merely a compensation for the frustration of sexual creativeness; but it is more probable that the making of life is only one manifestation of the universal urge to create. Our worst trouble today is our feeble hold on creation. To sit down and let ourselves be spoon-fed with the ready-made is to lose our grip on our only true life and our only real selves.
-endquote-
Ever since I read that, I've been drawing and writing more freely. When I'm tempted to let it go for now and go do something mindless, I think, "To sit down and let myself be spoon-fed with the ready-made is to lose my grip on my only true life and my only real self." It's helped.
This is one of those books that nobody ever told me about growing up, though I've been in church my whole life.
--
"Do good to all." - Blue Jean Quilts! - Artists' Hospital Doctor
And you're right, it is easy, and its not like its going to hurt anybody. =/ But I think if you tell anyone that when they're chewing out an art theif or anything like that you'll probably get snapped at with a million little justifications of why they have the right to be mean.
Bheglarf, I wish I had the same interest in books you have. You're talking about wishing you read books like these when you're a child when (being real) I probably wouldn't pick one up now. It's not just a time constraint thing but also a motivation thing D= But thank you for the quote, it helps to get the good bits out of these things because otherwise I'd miss out on them completely. Maybe its one of those things I can put on my Christmas Break list.
wanting to get the attention without the work
You're undoubtedly right about that. I don't think dishonesty is okay but I can understand the craving to feel noticed and special.
I do assume honesty in other people and it has gotten me in trouble at times, haha. Like at work, when I'm cleaning up forgotten objects on the table, at first I naively believed the students who would say "Hey that's mine" of this or that -- until at one point I was picking up my own art mess and they started claiming my sharpeners.
And I see you've fallen for my ingenious plot to keep you thinking I read nonstop! Too bad "interest" doesn't automatically amount to "books read"
--
"Do good to all." - Blue Jean Quilts! - Artists' Hospital Doctor
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