Monday, September 21, 2015

Dedication is expensive



I am again so happy to be a guest designer over at Path of Positivity this month!  If you missed my first post on the September theme of Dedication, you can see it here.

Seeing the beautiful image of the ballet slippers from Sparkle N Sprinkle took me back to my college days at Jordan College of Fine Arts where I studied music.  We instrumentalists mostly spent our time on the first and second floors of the older building in rehearsal halls, practice rooms, and private studios.  When we ventured down to the basement it was mostly to visit the vending machines or library.

The basement was also the home of the dance and theatre departments.  Now, I'll be quite frank with you, we didn't really hang with the kids from those majors.  Their lifestyles seemed very foreign to us.  I'm sure we appeared aloof and anti-social as we spent hours a day alone in practice rooms.

It wasn't until that first Nutcracker rehearsal where we all came together in the basement of the auditorium that we would be forced to see each other's dedication.

I'll never forget seeing the dancers' feet as they put on and laced their toe shoes.  Most of the dancers skipped lunch or ate scant salads.  They would come out onto the stage and look so lovely, but would breathe heavily or limp from pain in the wings once out of sight of the audience.

We instrumentalists also paid our dues for our art.  We would play our rehearsals, but then we would have to go back to practice rooms and work on reeds or practice those passages that simply didn't flow in the rehearsals.  Most of us also taught lessons, played gigs sitting behind the potted palms and worked other jobs to pay for the maintenance on our instruments and all the "bells and whistles" to make them work properly.  We wind players would play so many hours, our mouths would feel sore and our teeth would honestly feel somewhat loose!

We all learned very quickly, with all our differences, we had one very important attribute in common -- dedication!  We spent every moment perfecting our talent.

When I saw the quote I used on this card, I had to smile.  It is so true in all aspects of life!  Talent without dedication is useless to the craft, but true dedication is very expensive!

Would any artist trade back the painting, performance, exhibition, etc for the time?  Probably not; most would say they wish they had spent more time at their craft!  We, as the recipients, are so blessed by their dedication!

***


Wonderful sponsors this month are:



Creative Bug Digis



About this card ~  All cardstocks and inks are from CTMH.  The ribbon, button and tulle were from stash.  The beautiful image from Sparkle N Sprinkle is printed on glossy photo paper.

Thanks for visiting today.  Please make yourself at home and feel free to ask questions, leave comments, or peruse other posts.  Come back and visit again; you are always welcome!

1 comment: