For a painter, it is either the sight of uncontrollable delight, or a subtle sense of foreboding into depths of despondency; for the blank canvas represents two sides of a single coin: an opportunity to do what one can, or the beginning of that which may be rejected by an unappreciative public eye. But that is the inherent anomaly of every opportunity presented: potential success, or possible failure. That is why we carry around within us quips of self-appeasement, in order to lessen the weight of expected shortcomings: “Nothing gained, nothing lost”; “It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all”; the list of 100 successful people who failed at first; and other proverbial self-motivators. […]