Mo is leaving us.
Over the last eighteen years, NY Yankee Mariano "Mo" Rivera became one of the best relief pitchers in baseball history, and he did it with the kind of poise, grace and ease that frequently accompanies the best of the best.
You're probably wondering why the owner of an art school and gallery is writing about a baseball player when I usually blog about creativity or the art world. The honest answer is that, to me, excellence in just about any endeavor feels like beautiful art.
Mo's most lethal and artful pitch can be described in one word: simple. He just grabs the ball and throws it to a specific spot in the catcher's mitt the same way, every time. By comparison, most pitchers have 3 to five differing kinds of pitches with a variety of rotations and speeds. Not Mo. One pitch, one way and it works (much to the irritation of the batters who have the bad luck of facing him).
Somehow, the truly gifted don't allow themselves to get wrapped up in the noise of what they "should" do, based on what everyone else is doing. They just do what they do, and they strive to do it brilliantly, with consistent refinement and innovation. What they deliver isn't necessarily perfection, but rather a never-ending journey to achieve it.
Whether you're talking about sports, music, food, or art, you know greatness when you see it, hear it, or taste it. It's undeniable. It's also the by-product of rigorous study, practice and coaching on top of pure talent.
At One River School of Art and Design in Englewood, New Jersey, we help the art-inspired to fulfill their own creative brilliance. We teach, coach, and encourage our students to pursue lifelong creative education. Our new summer programs for kids, teens, and adults - including courses in self-portraiture, street art painting, anime-inspired art, electronic music production, pre-college portfolio development, and iPad painting - add exciting destinations to our students' journeys.
My hope is that over time , we are able to help our students to maximize their pure creative potential. Find their mojo. Get in touch with the artist that lives in all of us. And maybe one day, we'll also help them to find their one pitch.
Over the last eighteen years, NY Yankee Mariano "Mo" Rivera became one of the best relief pitchers in baseball history, and he did it with the kind of poise, grace and ease that frequently accompanies the best of the best.
You're probably wondering why the owner of an art school and gallery is writing about a baseball player when I usually blog about creativity or the art world. The honest answer is that, to me, excellence in just about any endeavor feels like beautiful art.
Mo's most lethal and artful pitch can be described in one word: simple. He just grabs the ball and throws it to a specific spot in the catcher's mitt the same way, every time. By comparison, most pitchers have 3 to five differing kinds of pitches with a variety of rotations and speeds. Not Mo. One pitch, one way and it works (much to the irritation of the batters who have the bad luck of facing him).
Somehow, the truly gifted don't allow themselves to get wrapped up in the noise of what they "should" do, based on what everyone else is doing. They just do what they do, and they strive to do it brilliantly, with consistent refinement and innovation. What they deliver isn't necessarily perfection, but rather a never-ending journey to achieve it.
Whether you're talking about sports, music, food, or art, you know greatness when you see it, hear it, or taste it. It's undeniable. It's also the by-product of rigorous study, practice and coaching on top of pure talent.
At One River School of Art and Design in Englewood, New Jersey, we help the art-inspired to fulfill their own creative brilliance. We teach, coach, and encourage our students to pursue lifelong creative education. Our new summer programs for kids, teens, and adults - including courses in self-portraiture, street art painting, anime-inspired art, electronic music production, pre-college portfolio development, and iPad painting - add exciting destinations to our students' journeys.
My hope is that over time , we are able to help our students to maximize their pure creative potential. Find their mojo. Get in touch with the artist that lives in all of us. And maybe one day, we'll also help them to find their one pitch.
About the Author:
Matt Ross is the founder of One River Gallery and One River School of Art & Design in Englewood, NJ. He's also the COO of SAE Institute USA, a chain of colleges that teach creative media. Ross was the founding CEO of School of Rock, the largest music education company in the world.
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