Messy

This morning, I woke up early and painted! It was a snow day--it snowed a ton last night and the town seemed shut down. I had planned to go to a volunteer training at Girls, Inc., but that was canceled. It's funny, though, by 2 pm the sun is out in Denver and the streets are all clear. The sidewalks are melting. I love that about Denver--the sun warms everything.

Here's a painting I started today. I don't know what it's really about, or where it's going, or if it's finished. I found some old sketch pads and mod podged the sketches to my canvas. The sketch I did felt very primitive, or something. Sparse. I'm having fun mixing colors and being very messy.
Here's how it started.
Here's where it went
And I'm getting into the swing of journaling. I just do a little everyday. I try to not really plan, just intuit, and go with it. This kind of process seems to feel so good right now. It feels so good to be so messy.
Here's one inspired by a Neko Case song:

I've been realizing what keeps me from doing art: All the "shoulds." I have always felt like there was some way one should paint, like there were rules and techniques and a secret code that I must "get" in order to create. Instead I've been giving myself permission to just "do." There's always a little resistance--"it's so ugly!" "it's so messy!" "uggh, what would someone think of this!" But I am ignorning those things because that's not that point. There's really no point and that's what I'm liking.

And here's the kind of morning it was. All the dogs followed me downstairs. I tried to take a picture of all of them snuggled in the room, but only Gus stayed for the picture.

Happy Wednesday!
xo

creating. space.

snowy sunday here in denver. i kind of like it...and i kind of don't. i am ready for spring! winter started early this year, in early october. and denver hasn't had its regular doses of sunshine. but... it also has been kind of fun to spend days holed up in the house, doug making fires in the fireplace, cooking, snuggling. and the past few days, now that my creative space is finished (above!), i have more time to create.

there's a bit more to do, but my studio space is pretty much done (above). it's a tiny room, but doug built a nice wall, we painted it a very light, subtle blue (that basically looks white), painted the exposed ceilings a creamy white, and got some cool lights from barnlight electric. doug built a great shelf with pipes coming down from the ceiling, and he's going to build one more underneath. i love it. it's light, clean, inspiring and a fun space to be. how lucky i am!

and here's some finished art. this is the finished form from the previous post--the painting that looked like a pot with some kind of plant coming out. it became a tree! hope everyone has a nice, lazy sunday. xo