I’m a firm believer in learning from artists working in other disciplines, such as music and painting. My husband and I recently attended an opening at the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, Montana, for our friend, painter Haakon Ensign, who quoted the great painter, illustrator, and sculptor Frederick Remington as saying “you need detail, but the right detail.”

Or as a contrasting pair of American novelists have put it:

“Be one of those people on whom nothing is lost.” — Henry James

“One of your gifts as a writer is that you are a sensitive witness to the Universe.”
– Johnny Worthen, speaking at the 2023 Pikes Peak Writers Conference.

(Painting: W. Haakon Ensign, oil on canvas, from the exhibit W. Haakon Ensign: Wildlife and Water — Lucky in the Flathead, June 2 — Aug 6, 2023, Hockaday Museum of Art. Look closely for the artist’s dog, Lucky, sniffing the ground just above the lakeshore.)