Is your Path Already Set?

Our Destiny Through the Eyes of an Artist

When you look into your future, do you believe that your path is already set for you, or do you believe that you control the outcome?  Is there such a thing as destiny?  I believe that our future is like a blank canvas.  You’ve made the intention of having some sort of future because you’ve invested in the canvas, but what it will turn into is uncertain. And while you do have some experience and skills built up to anticipate the outcome, sometimes (might I daresay more often than not) things simply don’t work out how you planned; what happens is half choice and half chance.

As you work through your painting you choose how you begin by the colors that you select or the image that you’ve created in your mind.  However to a certain extent the subconscious takes over and the image develops of its own free will. Some paintings turn out better than you ever could have dreamt up, while others become utter disasters.  (The disasters are often the ones you spend the most time on; think about that for a moment.)

As an artist, I am constantly starting over and creating something new.  Each blank canvas turns into something unexpected.  To be honest I sometimes shock myself with my finished paintings.

As it relates to life, I’ve opened up to the idea of letting life just happen.  Meanwhile I must tell you that as a control freak, this has been an ongoing struggle for me.  It doesn’t mean that I’ve lost hope or given up on experiences that I would still like to happen.  It’s rather about enjoying things that I've planned and accomplished that have worked out, and embracing moments that happen unexpectedly.  Mostly it’s about washing my hands of things that don’t work out and moving on to the next blank canvas.  And sometimes, instead of wasting a perfectly good canvas, it’s quite liberating just to paint right over the damn thing!