This past week we learnt about the artist Dalton Ghetti and looked at some of the intricate artwork that he creates out of pencil lead. It made us focus on the small details and realise that through patience, hard work and effort, beautiful artwork can be made out of things we take often take for granted. 
We need patience to keep going, we need ‘focus’ to maintain concentration on the task at hand and we need resilience when things don’t quite go our way or we make a mistake and have to start all over again. We read the following, “Artist Dalton M. Ghetti (b.1961) was deeply affected by the events on September 11, 2001; so much so that he was moved to create a memorial to honor the fallen by carving one teardrop every day for each of the victims. Averaging 300 teardrops per year, it took him 10 years to carve the 3,000 teardrops necessary to complete this project, entitled 3000 Tears. Using only his bare hands and a razor blade, and working without the benefit of a magnifying glass or other optical device, the Bridgeport, CT artist, whose studio is located in the Black Rock section of the city, carved individual teardrops from the graphite of pencils he found in streets and on sidewalks. The teardrops, each of which took nearly one hour to carve, are no larger than single grains of rice. Combined, they make one large, two-dimensional dark teardrop against a white background” (found at: http://artdaily.com/). What a story and piece of artwork that truly represents what ‘patience’ means!
We need patience to learn – to be the best we can be. Patience is needed to improve our learning, to constantly evaluate and reflect on what we have done to then put in the effort to make it even better.
How patient are you? Do you have patience with yourself and your learning? Do you give yourself enough time to reflect on your learning and to think about how to improve?
In what ways can you improve your patience?
