Sometimes, I get stuck in the mindset that whatever creative thing I’m doing can’t possibly be art because it’s fun. Like it needs to feel like work or it doesn’t count.
Realistically, I know that’s not true. If creative activities, regardless of the medium or the reason for doing it, always felt tedious, time-consuming, and laborious, very few people would actually bother. They would be busy doing things they enjoy.
Still, I occasionally need to remind myself that it’s OK to have fun with it and it’s perfectly acceptable to just play.
Today is also the second day of my 100 day project. The official project theme is “Where Dreams and Darkness Meet.” While it’s not required that participants follow the theme, I decided I wanted to explore it by painting on only one canvas every day for the duration. At some point, I decided I would need a canvas that was big enough and could handle whatever I threw at it.
So I built a cradled wood panel. I had intended to have it ready for painting yesterday, but every step was the most bizarre, unnecessary struggle. So I actually got it all put together yesterday.
What I’m about to say may be a little woo-woo for some folks, but I’m OK with that. There was a lot of frustration and negative energy popping up during the building, which I don’t want in my canvas. So I busted out the sage and smudged the whole thing to clear the energy.
Then, borrowing the first lines from Valarie Kaur, I wrote out the idea that begins my exploration.
“Not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb.
All life begins in the dark, and dreams are but fertile seeds, planted in the dark of night, awaiting the light of the sun and the moon, and the awakening of the dreamer to call them forth into life.
So dream on, dreams of love and light and goodness, and then arise, sweet dreamer, and make them real.
Love and light and goodness grow in the space where dreams and darkness meet.”
Today, I covered the whole thing in black gesso.
I should probably mention that this monster is 4 feet by 8 feet. I’m only a little over 5 feet tall. It’s currently on the workshop floor because I forgot to cart my step ladder in there!
Out of My Head 