Century Color Labs

This week we have a guest blogger, his name is Ara Hagopian. Ara is a Massachusetts artist, photographer and writer who recently launched a new website called The Literate Show. His latest blog article is about "doubt" and how many of our goals are never achieved because we let self-doubt or the doubters in our life get between us and our dreams.

Doubt is a shadow that blocks the sun, when we dare venture into something new. Doubt hangs over us like a heavy tree and snaps at the combination moment when we’re most vulnerable, and set to assert a strategy.

Doubt cloaks itself as constructive feedback. Doubt can be natural, and pretty! Doubt thinks it knows best. It has been there and has tried what you are trying, and wants to spare you grief, shame or loss.

For it to have teeth, doubt must come from a respected source. A stranger’s doubt is nothing but the musings of a fool. The doubt that hurts comes from your dinner table. It sleeps next to you in bed, resides in a friendly office or behind the eyes of those you love or trust.

The “Tree of Doubt Threatens Sandcastle City” drawing features a tree that looms over a fragile but beautiful city made of sand. The Tree of Doubt’s branches illustrate eight elements: self doubt, parental doubt, sibling doubt, colleague doubt, teacher doubt, spousal doubt, a friend’s doubt, and media doubt.

The Sandcastle City represents a person’s unique idea or plan for a project. Sandcastle City is peaceful and relaxing and full of promise. It is composed of soft, simple lines.

The Tree of Doubt’s five unique outgrowths—flowers, coconuts, petals, leaves and sprigs—represent unhelpful words that sprout and threaten to drop. They are pretty but all they add is weight to the tree:

Won’t winds erode Sandcastle City? Might people trample it? What’s the castle’s value? Everyone builds sandcastles. Could your time not be spent on something better?

Perhaps the Sandcastle City exists to be photographed for a colorful magazine spread. The Tree of Doubt responds with:

Are you sure? Why would they want to talk to you? Will the photographer show up? Will the editor actually choose this sandcastle?

The Tree of Doubt exhibits wasted energy—instead of doubting, it could be standing at the beach’s gate, directing the photographer this way. Or it could signal an editor regarding the transient but unique beauty that exists at Sandcastle City.

The sandcastle is nothing but an idea, belief, or course of action that may just happen to make a choice target for doubt. What’s certain is that the Sandcastle City is fragile. And the more it’s doubted, the heavier the tree looms.

Thank you Ara for sharing this blog with us... hopefully it will help all of us achieve more of our goals in life.

Ara also has a new facebook page and is looking for new "likes" to share his art and writings with.