My name is Pat Finley and I'm a sporadic meditator.  I've meditated two days in a row.

 

What sporadic meditator means is that my meditation practice has been mostly aspirational; that is, I aspire to meditate.  I don't actually do it.  Often.  Usually.

 

I am in the process of changing aspiration into reality.  So far (yes, it is early yet) I've got two days under my belt.  It's not much but hey everybody had a first day.

 

I currently am using the New York Times meditation guides in the following article: https://www.nytimes.com/guides/well/how-to-meditate.  Led by Tara Brach, the 10 minute meditation is just about right for me.  I've got 10 minutes, right?  Heck, I waste more time than that scrolling through Facebook!

 

Meditation helps with lots of stuff, as we know through neuroscience, but for me it is especially helpful for art solutions.  What can I do to a piece of art to make it beautiful?  Often the solution comes through meditation, which is why I strive to meditate regularly.  

 

For example, I've got a 40x60" panel that I created in teal resin with white and silver mountains outlined for a commission.  The client didn't like the pointedness of the mountains.  She was right; instead of rolling hills, as I originally suggested, I did pointy mountains.  (Don't ask what I was thinking; I have no idea.)  She was right to reject it.  So, what to do with this big (read: expensive) panel?  Can I rescue it?  What can I put on top of the pointy mountains to disguise them and create something entirely different?  

 

I've meditated on it and I think that through meditation I've come up with a solution.  I'm gonna give it a shot this week and see what happens.  I'll let ya know.  

 

The picture is of the panel with the mountains painted over with teal.