When Michael Jordan decided to play baseball in 1993 a lot of people criticized the fact that he was not as good as baseball as he was at basketball. He is a professional basketball player after all and many will argue that he is the best player of all times. That didn’t come easy and he practiced a lot. It is very unfair to think that he would be as good in baseball in a very short period of time. Yesterday I had the opportunity to work on my first full body painting. It was an amazing experience and I had so much fun. It was a lot of work. Five hours painting left me exhausted, but it was worth it. The model was excellent and so patient. I kept repeating to the point of being annoying, “It was not too bad for the first one”.

I am aware that I can’t become an expert or even as good as professional body painters on my first try just because I sculpt and paint. It would be ridiculous to think otherwise. It is like expecting Jordan to be excellent as baseball because he played basketball. However, there is always criticism and I must confess that most of it comes from myself. Interestingly, a lot of people liked the result. I liked it too. I liked it a lot. On the other hand, and if you know me and my brain, you know I was taking every minute of it to learn and figure out the strategies I’m using in the next body paintings. It should be better next time. I can still dedicate more time in details by avoiding mistakes and things that didn’t work as expected this time around.

There will be more. I have a few already scheduled leading to demos in September and October. I need the practice. I believe it is possible to learn each time something new. It is with everything we do and try. There is so much to learn and to try. Experimentation is always fun because it leads to discovery. It is important to learn from others but we need to try to figure things on our own and find the techniques and methods that are better for us. That’s what learning is, making meaning of knowledge between our own cognition and outside information. I am looking forward to the next experience.