To Be Trusted is a Greater Compliment Than to be Loved

by | Sep 23, 2023 | Trust - 2009 | 0 comments

I am republishing this from 14 years ago today. The quote is still true. I feel like I have progressed some since then. Not completely but I feel I am a more trustworthy person than I was in 2009. Why do I think that? Because I have tried to practiced it. That is the only way anyone gets better at anything. If you don’t practice it repeatedly, you’ll never become it. 

Original text – I am basically preaching to myself this week. This isn’t because I am not a trusting person, I am. More than most probably. I assume the best of intentions, I assume people will do what they say they are going to do. It doesn’t always happen, but I would rather get burned once in a while and be a trusting person than always be safe but have to trust no one.

Why I do need to hear this stuff about trust is because I am always needing to work on being a more trustworthy person. I think I am better than some, not as good as others. But I am not as trustworthy as I would always like to be. It’s a process of doing the right thing, the good thing, the promised thing, again and again and again. It takes patience and discipline, knowing boundaries and constantly remembering what I have promised.

I suppose most of us struggle with it, at least I hope I am not alone with it, am I?

Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman

“To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.” – George McDonald, 1824-1905, Scottish author and Christian minister.

Polka Dots – Recent Paintings

by | Sep 13, 2023 | Series, Sketchbook History Tour | 0 comments

I recently finished a sketchbook. It’s a weird thing to finish a sketchbook. I always feel like a relationship is ending. The feel, paper, size, look are all unique. How it takes ink, how I hold it, how it fits as I go somewhere is different with each sketchbook. Some allow me to draw inconspicuously while others are too big to hide. Some say ‘hippie natural’ while others say ‘serious conformist artist’.

But most importantly, what I draw in it is different based on all those things. Some lend themselves to drawing live while others tend to move me to draw purely imaginative images. It isn’t exclusive, I draw live and imaginatively in every sketchbook but there is an inclination depending on the book.

Here are some from a sketchbook that lent itself to a lot of imaginative drawing. I chose recent paintings that include polka dots or other type of recurring pattern on the clothing. I often do this so as to give definition to a form or to define a something as in front of or behind something else. They also include a lot of people holding microphones. That is because I often start the drawing in church, lightly memorizing the person on stage during the singing, then drawing a version of that person once the sermon starts.

Enjoy and let me know what you think. Do you have a favorite?