Finding Your Sweet Spot

It's funny how a little tidbit of information can open up your world...

Have you imagining all kinds of new things...

And seeing what you do in a whole new way. That's exactly what happened when my brother mentioned Jim Nares. I looked him up and immediately felt my heart start to race...

[caption id="attachment_5057" align="aligncenter" width="498" caption="This is Jim Nares. He suspends himself above his canvas and may makes hundreds of passes until he renders that one perfect stroke."][/caption]

When he moved from England to New York in the 70's he was dabbling in film, music, sculpture...one of his early works is a film of a giant caste cement globe swinging like a wrecking ball from a pedestrian bridge outside his apartment in what was then a decrepit lower Manhattan. If you're interested, here's a little more...

Seems like an unlikely start for a painter, but as Paul Kasmin Galleries puts it, "Mr. Nares hadn’t yet developed his signature single-brush-stroke paintings, but he was honing his intensely physical formula by swinging giant pendulums through desolate alleys.

The way Jim puts it (I'm paraphrasing here) he was one of those people who wanted to do everything and didn't succeed at it very well... in the 80's there was a resurgence in painting and he decided to focus on one thing and do it very well.

He's certainly succeeded. He narrowed his focus, even beyond paint, to just the stroke itself, and from several strokes and colors to one single pass in one brilliant hue. He also went from dabbling to creating an amazing, successful, and focused life.

Sometimes finding your sweet spot can take a little searching, a little experimenting, maybe even a little failing. But opening up to the journey and letting the work and success of others inspire you brings those lucky strokes just as close to you. And little by little you'll see everything come into focus.