This spring & summer, I've been taking an incredibly fun e-course by Mindy Lacefield {aka Tim's Sally} called Paint Your Story. One of the things many of us taking the class have been talking about struggling with is how hard it is to cover up each background layer with a new one ... especially when you really love the way it looks in the moment. I've always looked at it as a great way to practice the art of letting go - a hard thing to do for many artists.
When you're passionate about something, you want it to be all it can be. But in the endgame of life, I fundamentally believe the key to happiness is letting go of that idea of perfection.
+ Debra Messing +
I have struggled with the concept of letting go in many areas of my life, but find it pretty easy to do with my paintings. Maybe it's because I'm still new to the world of painting, and see it as a necessary part of learning. However, I suspect that the real reason lies in all the changes that have taken place in our family this past year. I feel like I'm becoming an expert in the art of letting go. I've had to let go of: old ways of thinking and behaving ... my children's lives as they move on to college ... friends I thought I wanted as life-long partners in my life journey ... goals and dreams that no longer fit who I am or want to become ... all kinds of things I thought would be harder to do then they ultimately ended up being. That's not to say I didn't suffer horrible growing pains with some of them, because believe me I did. Not all changes are easy to make ... especially the ones we want to hold on to with both hands.
One of my new goals this year, has been to teach myself how to acrylic paint. It's one of my favorite kinds of art to look at by other artists, and I decided that it's about time I make a go of it myself. Something I knew was going to be an important part of achieving the look I adore is creating a rich, layered background by painting multiple backgrounds over each other; letting bits and pieces of the previous layer peek through. Painting has become part of my morning routine, and I now like to refer to it as my Morning Meditation. I put on the music ... tune out the world ... and just enjoy the process:
NOW GO MAKE ART!
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