That Compliments You
Posted By Kathleen David on July 23, 2009
Compliments are funny things. Some one takes at face value, others one rapidly goes through the ways and wherefores of the compliment, some are dismissed for a variety of reasons, and other are gratefully accepted.
I had to learn to allow me to believe the compliments that others gave me. I can be a second guesser (and a 3rd and 4th guesser too). It is in my nature to question things to death, re-animation, and death again. But I have learned over the years that a majority of the time what people say is what they mean and that goes for giving compliments.
There are times I wish I could go back in time and tell myself a few things that took me years to learn and also how to avoid a few things that still haunt me to this day. But if I could go back and tell myself one thing, it would be to not take everything that is said to me personally. In conjunction with that would be to accept compliments gracefully and not worry about them or why I think I didn’t deserve that compliment.
I learned to accept compliments for my artwork and that was a hard thing to do. People see the finish product or are amazed at the progress pictures and all I see is the flaws within the piece. How I took a short cut to finish the piece in time for a show or how I really wanted to do this but had to settle for that. There was a time in there that I thought of myself more a crafter than an artist but I learned that they are really one in the same.
The Keith puppet I did for the Keith Roast was not easy to make but I am right proud of it. I managed to capture the essence of Keith in that puppet. There was no mistaking who it was a puppet of. I did a lot of thinking and double thinking when I was working on it. But the final product looked just like the picture I had based it on so I was right happy with it. After giving it to Keith, I spent the rest of the convention getting complimented for my work and I accepted those compliments gladly. I amused and amazed people so I know I did good with it.
Now I am getting ready for DragonCon. I have three pieces pretty much done. There are a couple of things I would like to tweak but they are small changes. Two pieces are almost done and I have a number I want to make along with a prop for one of the pieces. I have almost everything worked out in my head. So this weekend is going to be a push to get as much done as possible so that I can concentrate on some other stuff. I hope I will get compliments on the new stuff and I am quite proud of the compliments that have been paid to the other pieces.
I am grateful for all the compliments I have received over the years.
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