I've felt a metamorphosis of late, not only a shift in the colors I choose, but how I use them. I'm not talking about adding a new mix of colors to an approach already discovered, but using acrylics in a new way.
Instead of doing washes, or random areas of paint with my hands, or applying fluid acrylics over collaged items, I'm going for blocks of color. There's no real method here, other than the thicker and more opaque the better; I choose a color almost blindly -- without forethought, not sight -- and apply it to the page.
My journal has become key during the last week or so, a safe haven for me to experiment in, to make a mess, try new things, explore this new way of thinking. And I love that about my journal -- that there's no pressure, no reason other than to play and experiment. To make mistakes. I've gone through phases while working on these pages where I hate what's happening - that it's not going in the direction I want (and why am I bringing that kind of thought into it in the first place?), but I just keep going.
A lot of it is fueled by this: "Wouldn't it be fun if...?"
Such as: "Wouldn't it be fun to make shapes and then add white everywhere?"
"Wouldn't it be fun to write over stenciled shapes?"
"Wouldn't it be fun to add a bit of orange?"
I can't even begin to tell you how freeing it is to approach art this way - with fun in mind, not the final product.
And it goes past art. Such as yesterday's, "Wouldn't it be fun if we went to the dog park?"
Or maybe, "Wouldn't it be fun to work on the floor?"
"Wouldn't it be fun to have ice cream for lunch?"
Try asking yourself questions with this approach, if only once today. Don't censor yourself, or allow your inner Grown-Up to hit the idea down. Just see something and wonder...
Wouldn't it be fun?
The answer is a resounding
YES.
(Check out more detail photos of these pages here.)