2016 A Year in Art COMPLETE!

Well I just finished my last piece for the year. 365 pieces of art one for every day of the year. Now as you know I did many more than that, and there were days where I didn’t finish a piece. Represented in this collection are also pieces that took several days to finish. Nonetheless I have at least one creation complete for each day of the year. Any creative project counted as long as I was creating something.

The reason I did this was not just for me, I already create nearly every day. No, I did this for the reader or viewer who think’s he or she doesn’t have time to create, to show you that you do. There are those slack moments those little pieces of downtime and if you use some of the to create, you’ll be amazed at what you can create.

Not only that but the more you create, the more you improve upon your skills and let’s never forget, It’s supposed to be fun.

For next year, I am going to help this along. I am currently working on a book called The Daily Creative. Basically this book provides a creative challenge for every day of the year. I’ll be posting a page from this book every day over at DWeissCreative.com and over on The Daily Creative Facebook page starting tomorrow.

Additionally for 2017, one of the areas where I constantly fall short is in there area of marketing and promotion. I plan to work on rectifying that for this year, so rather than creating a piece of art every day, I plan on creating as many marketable products as I can in 2017, with a minimum of one a week. This will include books and lessons, speaking presentations, as well as things like t-shirts, art products, articles, etc.
I will post these here and on DWeissCreative.com. I hope you will join me for the journey. It’s going to be fun.

Here is the video I made of all of this year’s creations. 2016 was a year in art. 2017 is upon us…

Just Make Art!

The Idiocy of Pride

As we finish out this year, I had to share this video I saw on Facebook yesterday and probably not for the reason that you think. Watch it before you read on.

You probably found the video touching. Many people do. You may have thought it makes a good point. It does. It’s well made and overall, it’s compelling, and it has, on the surface a good message, so well done. Now here’s what’s wrong with it.

You may think the son is an ingrate. You’re right, he is. He’s a pretty awful human being, but his father is an idiot. (I can say that because he’s not real.) Here’s why. The father gave his son a tremendous gift, actually more than he asked for and had I done this and my son reacted that way, I would have no doubt been infuriated, However, I would have not missed the rest of my life with my son over a botched gift or an unfortunate moment of greedy stupidity. What kept this father and son apart for the rest of their lives? Pride. The sin that made the devil fall.

The father in this story was willing to lose a son over a car and far too many people have fallen to this level of idiocy in the real world. Oh we feel all bad for this father who was hurt by his terrible son, but what would have happened if the father flipped out and said, “The car key’s in the back of the journal you jerk.” Now the son apologizes, learns a valuable lesson and the father gets to forgive and spend the rest of his life with his son (who is now humbled and smarter for the future). Instead the father chose to lick his wounds, nurse his pitiful pride and lose his son over what? A car? It’s absurd.

When telling a story, it’s important to make sure you’re making the point you need to make. Pride and idiocy are best friends. The creators of the video were trying to make the point of gratitude and “don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone” and they succeeded but in the process they missed the bigger point of the importance of being the bigger person. God said “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger” for a reason. As we close out this year, are there any broken relationships in your life that need healing. It starts by extending the grace we have received in Christ.

Don’t let pride make you an idiot.