Find your passion? If only it were that simple

She was creative and

competent. The problem had been, as it always had been, that

once the first rush of excitement was over something else had

caught her interest.

Loving Jack

This was different.

Jackie cradled her chin in her hand. How many times had she said that before? The  photography studio, the dance classes, the potter's wheel. But this was different. She'd been fascinated by each field she'd tampered in, and in each had shown a nice ability to apply what she'd learned, but she was beginning to see, or hope, that all those experiments, all those false starts, had been leading up to this.

She had to be right about the story. This time she had to carry it through from start to finish. Nothing else she'd tried had been so important or seemed so right. It didn't matter that her family and friends saw her as eccentric and fickle. She was eccentric and fickle. But there had to be something, something strong and meaningful, in her life. 

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CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11979

New study challenges the idea that your lifelong pursuit is just buried inside you somewhere — but a new mindset can help.

Sounds great, doesn't it? 

In fact, finding your passion has become a big business, with colleges, self-help books and courses, and experts lined up to help people discover their one true path. 

But for many people, that specific passion can be awfully elusive. 

That's because, contrary to how the idea is popularly understood, most people don't just magically find their passion one morning. That truth can be frustrating and discouraging. 

Mother Nature Network

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But that wasn't the point, she reminded herself as she stared at the pendant. She'd lost that job and all the others, and now Margaret was giving her a chance to prove she wasn't a complete moron.

Which, Allena feared, she probably was.

"You need to find your place."

Blinking, Allena managed to tear her gaze away from the pendant and look back into the old woman's eyes. They seemed so kind and wise. "Maybe I don't have one."

"Oh, there now, each of us has one, but there are those who don't fit so easily into the world the way others see it. And us. You've only been looking in the wrong places."

Ever After

Bring Out Your Inner Artist

But she was already moving in, eyes wide and delighted. 
"You're an artist. This is wonderful. You sculpt."
The single room was nearly as big as the main area of the cottage. And much more cramped. A
worktable stood in the center, crowded with tools and hunks of stone, pots of clay. A half dozen sketch pads were tossed around. Shelves and smaller tables were jammed with examples of his work. Mystical, magical creatures that danced and flew.
A blue mermaid combed her hair on a rock. A white dragon breathed fire. Faeries no bigger than her thumb ringed in a circle with faces sly. A sorcerer nearly as tall as she, held his arms high and wept. 
"They're all so alive, so vivid." She couldn't help herself, she had to touch, and so she ran her finger down the rippling hair of the mermaid.


Ever After

_________________

See how fine artists, writers and other creatives make room for their talents to roam free

Photo by Sarah Greenman - Discover farmhouse living room design inspiration

Whether you are a professional, working artist or have art-related dreams, a dedicated studio space fuels your creativity. Here are seven home studios that may inspire you to dust off your paintbrush or potter’s wheel.

HOUZZ

_________________

Cilla saw the gorgeous wide-planked chestnut floor, the beautiful tall windows and the wide,
glossy trim. “
"What a wonderful room."
“"Big. It was designed as the master bedroom, but I don’t need this much space to sleep.”"
Cilla tuned into him again, and into the various workstations set up in the room. 
Five large, and very ugly, filing cabinets lined one wall. Shelves lined another with what seemed to be a ruthless organization of art supplies and tools. He’d devoted another section to action figures and accessories. She recognized a handful of the collection, and wondered why Darth Vader and Superman appeared so chummy.
A huge drawing board stood in the center of the room, currently holding what she assumed to be the panels he’d talked about. Spreading out from it on either side, counters and cubbies held a variety of tools, pencils, brushes, reams of paper. Photographs, sketches, pictures torn or cut out of magazines of people, places, buildings. Still another leg of the counter held a computer, printer, scanner—a Buffy the Vampire Slayer action figure.
Opposite that, to form a wide U, stood a full-length mirror.
"“That’s a lot of stuff."”
"“It takes a lot of stuff."


Tribute

Beautiful Ways to Decorate Your Home for Spring

"To hell and back again with the dust, Allena. Look here at your flowers and candles and your bowl of broken shells. And out here."

He dragged her to the door, shoved it open. "Here's a garden that was suffering from neglect until the morning. Where's the sand that was all over the walk that I didn't even notice until it was gone? There are sheets drying in the wind out back and soup heating in the kitchen. The bloody shower doesn't drip now. Who did those things?"

"Anyone can sweep a walk, Conal."

"Not everyone thinks to. Not everyone cares to. And not everyone finds pleasure in the doing of it. In one day you made a home out of this place, and it hasn't been one in too long, so that I'd all but forgotten the feel of a home around me. Do you think that's nothing? Do you think there's no value in that?"

"It's just and ordinary," she said for lack of a better word.

"I can't make a career out of picking wildflowers."

"A living can be made where you find it, if a living must be made. You've a need to pick wildflowers and sea-shells, Allena. And there are those who are grateful for it, and notice the difference you make."

If she hadn't loved him already, she would have fallen at that moment with his words still echoing and his eyes dark with impatience. "That's the kindest thing anyone's ever said to me."

Ever After

________________

By Benson Kua from Toronto, Canada (One  Uploaded by tm) [CC BY-SA 2.0 

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

These ideas are going to give you a serious case of spring fever.

YAHOO!

Lifelike Sculptures

"You're an artist. This is wonderful. You sculpt."

The single room was nearly as big as the main area of the cottage. And much more cramped. A worktable stood in the center, crowded with tools and hunks of stone, pots of clay. A half dozen sketch pads were tossed around. Shelves and smaller tables were jammed with examples of his work. Mystical, magical creatures that danced and flew.

A blue mermaid combed her hair on a rock. A white dragon breathed fire. Faeries no bigger than her thumb ringed in a circle with faces sly. A sorcerer nearly as tall as she, held his arms high and wept.

"They're all so alive, so vivid." She couldn't help herself, she had to touch, and so she ran her finger down the rippling hair of the mermaid. "I've seen this before," she murmured. "Not quite this, but the same feeling of it, but in bronze. At a gallery in New York."

Ever After

____________________

By Ricardo André Frantz (User:Tetraktys) Background edited, CC BY-SA 3.0, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2923870

Here are some of the most impressive sculptures ever created by masters of the art past and present. Perhaps most people will be unfamiliar with them, but they have the power to astonish with their sheer beauty even at first sight.

BRIGHT SIDE

____________________

 Conal stepped back from his own work. His hands were smeared with clay to the wrists, and his eyes half blind with concentration.

Allena of the Faeries. She stood tall, slim, her head cocked slyly over one shoulder, her eyes long and her mouth bowed with secrets. She wasn't beautiful, nor was she meant to be. But how could anyone look away? How could he?
Her wings were spread as if she would fly off at any moment. Or fold them again and stay, if you asked her.

Ever After