once i brought a palette to an art class and i had forgotten to scrape the paint off from the last session, so i didn’t have a clean center in the middle to work from, and because of this, i felt shame. shame! for having some old paint on my palette. i now recognize that shame for what it was: shame at being a beginner, for not knowing what i was doing (which i didn’t), shame at posing as an artist, but not really being one. and now, standing at the other side of that, with my feet firmly planted in front of my easel, i say fork that. how would any of us get anywhere without being a beginner? can we change that mindset? can we praise beginners? can we praise not knowing, but doing it anyway? can we praise failure? yes, please. we are all artists - let’s let ourselves play and fail and try and feel good doing it. i am still doing that, only i’m a lot more comfortable with the label, and with all the forgotten, crusty paint on my palette.