Changes

I am happy to say that I am still on a creative roll. I have recently finished my fourth oil painting (portrait) and hope to start a fifth in the next day or two. I am really enjoying painting again, and every time I paint it seems to get better. Lots of creative ideas are flowing. Just the other day I wrote a short children's book for my soon to be 6 year old son. I am in the process of creating some simple water color illustrations for the book. When that's done, I plan to turn it into a book with the oh-so-convenient book maker on my mac. I recently created a nice photo book with the program to give away for Christmas. I am slowly getting to know what my mac can do. It's pretty awesome.

Speaking of creativity and feeling pretty good these days I have had the urge to make some minor changes in my appearance. Nothing that involves a scalpel, I promise. Just a bit of freshening up to give me the little pick me up that turning 41 has made me feel like I need. Hello new hair cut and new eye color (via contacts of course). Now if I could just lose that weight......

On a Roll

Lately I am just buzzing with creativity when it comes to my painting. As always I am interested in adding something dark and twisty to my paintings. I am painting portraits of women now and of course had to include myself in my third one on the weekend. In this image I have severe bed head, an old shirt, and I am knitting in a corner of my bed. On my shoulder is perched a black crow. I find the crow a perfect symbol for dark thoughts, as crows have been associated with evil things that lurk in dark corners of the mind. After that painting I had another revelation. As I like to paint lonliness and depression (go figure), I thought one way to add a small twist of humour was to have the symbol of darkness doing something fun or interesting. Anyone familiar with the painter Hans Holbein (painter to King Henry VIII) may be familiar with his series of woodcuts entitled "Dances of Death". In each image we see a skeleton representing death leading some hapless victim towards their maker. I am going to include small elements of some of these images in my paintings. I'll have to wait and see if it works.

Another Lightbulb Moment

If any of you are familiar with the book "The Artist's Way" or the sequel " The Vein of Gold", you'll know that it is a great resource for artists. I did the Artist's way almost 9 years ago after several failed attempts. I say failed attempts because the book requires that you do a lot of exercises and soul searching. I tried a few times but found it all too much . Finally I got through it. After that I left a terrible relationship, had my first solo exhibit, and started painting regularly and taking jewellery design courses. It was like the damn had been opened once I cleared away all the clutter. Well, I have started for the 4th time "The Vein of Gold". Some of the exercises are emotionally painful to do, but go a long way towards understanding yourself and clearing away that clutter. Recently I found myself bogged down in regrets, people from the past, toxic work relationships, and other equally instrusive negative thoughts and emotions. A couple of weeks ago I was sitting at this very computer and my mind was racing with thoughts. Suddenly I sat there and said to myself, all of these thoughts are taking up space and energy in my brain. I don't have the time or the energy for this, it is all so draining. I need to just get rid of this stuff . I literally visualized myself sweeping people, emotions and thoughts away into a corner. I suddenly felt as if I was lighter. I am serious when I say that within several minutes I had several creative ideas pop into my head. I was giddy. This really worked! I think I was ready however, ready to move on and get back to what mattered, my family and my art. I wasn't ready before. And there's the thing. You have to be ready.