"angel wings are hearts" 5.5" x 5.5"
I've embarked on a new mission: to paint every day for 37 days.
Monday, I picked up a copy of Patti Digh's Life is a Verb. It is amazing! This woman is a very gifted writer. It's full of stories and ideas and challenges -- one of them is to do something artistic for your 37 days. (she's got a great blog, too!)
It has a passage from Art and Fear. The teachers split their students into two groups -- one would be graded on quantity, on how many pieces of pottery were made, the other on quality, on how well one piece was made. Surprise, surprise, when they were all finished, the quantity group had the best pieces while the quality group had lots of theories as to how to make it perfect.
Every time I would sit down to do a painting, I would worry about making it the best I could. I wouldn't play because I was afraid to make mistakes. After writing my last post, I got to thinking. How did I get so comfortable and happy with my art journals?
By making lots and lots and lots of them!
I need to take this approach with other forms of art as well!
On the way home from the bookstore on Monday night, I took a swerve to the left and went to Lowes. While my father's worked for an industrial hardware company for longer than I've been alive, a. he does graphic design for them, and b. they do nuts and bolts, tools and such, not wood. So I'm comfortable in hardware stores, but a bit lost when I get to those huge, wide open aisles of lumber.
I was a bit lost.
I knew two things:
1. I wanted pine.
2. I wanted smaller pieces at least a half-inch thick.
Wandering, wandering, and AH-HA! I found the "craft wood." Perfect. Got 'em, brought them home, measured them out, and sawed them down myself.
I now have stacks of small, roughly 5.5" x 5.5" pieces of wood ready to paint on. And I'm going to do one every single day. In addition to my journals and other stuff. Like the totally revamped Artistic Alchemy Workbook. And the jewlrey I love making. And tags like these for my neighborhood.
Hope you're having a lovely day!