The Frustrations of Art and Language

It's another hot day, and the air conditioner dilemma is not resolved. This will be a quick one.

I've started work on the painting I mentioned the other day. It's acrylic on canvas. I'm not completely happy with how it's starting, although the underpainting isn't supposed to look good. It's just part of the process to get to the final result. It's going to be a cat sitting in grass. I'm not confident of my ability to paint a cat, but I've painted a rabbit before. It turned out pretty well.

There's a certain frustration with painting. It never turns out the way I see it in my head. I'll have this magnificent picture in my mind. I'll have an idea of how to accomplish it with the medium. The final product never matches my inner vision. I wonder if other people have this same problem. I'll see an incredible masterpiece and wonder if it was what the artist had in mind from the beginning. Despite how phenomenal the painting is, was it the original vision?

Moving on to another frustration, French. I just finished a 500-page book. I had to look up tons of words. I thought I would be more fluent by now. I understand that literature has a far greater vocabulary than the spoken language. If you know the 3,000 most frequently used words in a language, you can understand about 80% of normal dialogue. About 10,000 words is high school level. About 20,000 words is someone with a college education. To sound educated you need about a 20,000-word vocabulary.

At this point I've read millions and millions of words. I listen to French audio for about an hour a day. I still have to look up words. I still don't have a listening fluency. I can follow along with some things fairly well, but other things are close to gibberish. It seems like it shouldn't be this way. On the other hand a lot of what I read I don't have translate into English in my head. The same with listening. I can read something or hear something and understand it but not be able to spout off an immediate English translation. I'd have to think about how to say it first. That definitely feels like progress on some level, but listening to something and hitting a gibberish patch doesn't. Running into a paragraph with the right number of high-level vocabulary doesn't.

The solution to learning any language is massive input. Maybe I need to put more time into it. I've been reading more lately, because it's been too hot to get on the computer much. Maybe I need to win the lottery and take a French course in Paris. Sadly, I might buy a ticket once a year at Christmas and most years not even then.

I asked for prayer about something the other day. I could use more. :) I think I have a direction to go, but it's not the immediate answer I was hoping for.

Have a great weekend.