-Skateboard Musings-

        As the weather becomes nicer, I am led outside more evenings to practice skateboarding under the streetlights.  There is a reason why I am writing about the parallels of skateboarding and the creation of a painting and I will discuss some of them in this post.  
        I am by no means a proficient skater, but this is perhaps why I feel such excitement in the early stages.  Similar to the early goings of painting, I felt that even the small steps forward were great leaps.  And there is an element of the duality of my activities, a stationary activity of painting with mental strain, versus a physical activity that involves real danger as opposed to psychological fear.  The fear of both are interesting to compare also, but it really is a breakdown of practice and mental preparation.  The fear I have of making a "bad" painting though, is my greatest fear.  But I wont lie, rolling quickly and jumping over a curb puts a living scare into me.  In skating, if I decide to jump over an object or do a series of movement, it all as to be plotted out beforehand and I must get a feel for the object that I am jumping over.
     So, this feeling, I think comes from practice; many hours on the board or with a brush in the hand in order to execute the objective that I have in my mind.  So I muse a lot while I am alone skateboarding and painting.
          As a transportational medium, skating allows me to ride up and down the street on a basic level, and jump over a curb on the next level.  So I must conquer my fear of falling and practice enough to be able to jump over a curb so that I can travel to more places with ease and attain higher levels.  
        Not over-thinking is another element in both these activities.  It is a brush and colored dirt with various media, just as a skateboard is a piece of wood with four wheels, yet both can provide so much joy.  But it's not easy to clear my mind, as I ask myself ,"what if I fall?"  The creativity of both activities is another element which attracts me.  With practice, I can paint anything I can imagine.  And with practice, I can turn the street into an analyzed area to test my limits.  And I think that that is what it's all about.  Testing limits.  I hope you all have some activities that exercise your minds in different ways and keep you physically active.  Testing limits in the gym/painting/and falling on my ass on a skateboard.  
       That's the other thing, I fall a lot while skating, but I know it's the only way to improve.  So I know I will make a terrible painting many times before I get back up and try it again.