Leo - Spirit Boatist!

My partner in life and work is also an excellent boat maker. I have learned many tricks from Leo Germano, an artist with a natural inclination for design. When you give him a form, he knows what to do with it and comes up with some very compelling results. In our last workshop, he was in the limelight demonstrating wrapping techniques using a great spool of string that was set in place with glue. He has a good sense of how much string to apply for good effect.
We say to our fellow boat makers, let the material call to you and tell you how it can be used, for each things has its own voice. In making boats, as in making art, it is sometimes hard to know when to stop. A work of art has the right amount and balance between what is there to give the idea without overloading the piece with too much. It calls for intuition to direct the actions and pausing to ask- what else do I need to do? Or, am I done?
Ernest Hemingway said something that has often been the case for me, "Always quit for the day when you know what you want to do next." And from one of my favorite art coaches and author, Eric Maisel, "When a thing is not done, continuing to work is the strength; but when it is done, the strength lies in stopping."