It Changed the Way I Think
Sometimes you come across a movie that stays with you for years and years.
Not many have done this to me but one in particular has… it’s called “Sliding Doors.”
It’s an old one with Gwyneth Paltrow and was made in 1998.
What is a “sliding doors” moment?
still from the movie “Sliding Doors”
Basically, the film has two storylines, one where a decision she made took her life in one direction, and the other where that decision was different and took her life in another direction.
Two different seemingly small decisions took her life into two different directions. Two totally different lives because of one decision.
Now think how many decisions you make every single day…millions…and think how each one can impact your life. For example, at the last minute you decide to take a different route to work than usual and it turns out that there is a car accident and you are stuck in traffic for a half hour. BUT, some sweet person in a car behind happened to bringing a big box of donuts to his office for coworkers and starts offering them to the cars around him. And you are in that group! Now…lucky you.
A last-minute decision can make a huge difference in your life. Think of THAT!
photo credit: @madebyjens on unsplash
Which school you go to, which neighborhood you live in, what city you live in…these are all really big decisions that can put you on one track when changing one of those elements can totally change your life.
As artists we make millions of decisions on each painting. Whew, it can be exhausting.
Especially in abstract painting, each decision can throw you on a different trajectory. Suppose you choose to paint over a color rather than keep that color in… that one decision can lead you down a totally different path.
Most of the decisions in the beginning of the first couple layers don’t really make much difference in the painting. They’re going to give you painting history so that later you have lots of possibilities to choose from.
I don’t listen to any music while I work because I want to hear my thoughts loud and clear. Do I want to add another shape? Do I want to push that dark color back? Do I want to add an exaggerated line?
In my art, one decision is not necessarily better than another, just different. And thinking about all the different paths paintings can take is so exciting.
By the way, I’m happy to share a resource I created about making decisions, and it’s called “Being Decisive.”
Click below to download it.
Before seeing this movie, I didn’t really think about how a small decision could make that much of a difference.
Now I'm much more aware and conscious of the decisions I make.
If you would like to see the "Being Decisive" resource I created, click below to download it.
