Work in Progress: Collaboration

There is a pattern happening in my house… No canvas is safe from getting pulled down and a layer of gesso slapped on top.  I am starting to look at this as a practice in impermanence.  Nothing lasts forever, why not breathe new life into these canvases that are just sitting in my closet?  I have plenty of pictures and blog posts to document their first phases, along with my feelings at the time.  There was careful love and attention given to each one the first time around.  They have good energy.  Why not move that energy forward a build upon it?  Here’s a look at some of the layers on this canvas’ latest incarnation.

Here, I got a little helper added to the mix.  I would paint, and then the little one squirted the water.  This particular day, he asked to go into the studio to paint right after he first opened his eyes for the day.  No breakfast, no cartoons yet… he just asked “Can we paint, please?”  When he’s so polite, how can I refuse?

Now, I’ve run into a problem.  I’ve fallen in love with this layer.  I can’t seem to add anything.  So right now, I’m still sitting with it. Waiting for it to whisper that it’s ready to move forward.

When it’s ready, I’m sure my little guy will be there and waiting with his spray bottle in hand.

A Mixed Media Canvas: Whimsical

This is a canvas I finished recently for this adorable little girl I used to teach in baby yoga. Her mom allowed for a lot of artistic expression, essentially saying “I trust you”. Eeeep! I knew she liked some canvases I’d done with flowers, and she had sent me pics of her little girl’s room. So for this one, I was going for whimsical flowers with a mandala pattern taken from her sheet set.

The flowers have a lot of layers peeking through. I tried to give it some layers without looking “too grungy”. Grungy doesn’t exactly fit for a little girl’s room, ya know?

I’m delivering it today – I’m excited to see how it looks in her room!

Supplies used: Golden Heavy Body acrylic paint, India Ink, Sharpie paint pen

To see this canvas as a work in progress, visit THIS POST.

A Magical Life

“There was a dream and one day I could see it. Like a bird in a cage I broke in and demanded that somebody free it.” ~ The Avett Brothers

The other day my friend shared some wisdom she had received from a friend. Often in life you are confronted with two seemingly equal paths to choose from. You could take either path and be happy and make a living. However, there is always one path that will have more heart.

Yes, the path with more heart is what I’m striving for right now. First, you have to still the mind so you can hear what your heart has to say. Are the things you long for only dreams because of someone else’s impressions or someone else’s path? It takes a whole lotta stillness and silence to figure out what is unique to YOU. And by stillness I mean sitting with your own thoughts – no music, no tv, no entertainment of any kind that will put other thoughts into YOUR head. When it’s JUST you, what comes up?

There have been many times on the path of becoming an artist that I’ve thought “this is what I need to do to help me make a living as an artist”. And I’ve felt that because that’s what I see other artists who “have made it” doing. But when I sit in the quiet and really think about what those things take from start to finish and ask myself “is that how I want to spend my time?”. “Does that align with how my family and I like to spend our time?” Who wants to spend their life doing what they “need” when they could act from a place of want?

We have a great power available to be harnessed – our perception and intention. Whatever stories we tell ourselves… those things WILL come true. The key is to choose very positive, powerful, intentional stories. SPECIFIC dreams. So I’ve been journaling a lot lately around what my dream life would look like. Specifically, in my dream life, what would I do all day long? How do I make those dreams come true? Even if they seem pretty far out of reach… what baby steps can I take towards living that life? I’ve realized (or really my sister has said it a million times) – this dream life isn’t just going to come knock on my door and say, “Hi Carly, Would you like to have me?”. It’s going to take action by ME. I have to determine what I WANT to be. And then go be it.

The path with more heart is exhilarating and terrifying, all at the same time. I’m over living my life merely by choosing the path of least resistance… choosing the easy path. Damn it, life can be beautiful and magical and I deserve a f*cking magical life. And you do, too.

What would your dream life look like?

A Mixed Media Canvas: Listen

Let go of the need

to classify every experience.

let go of the need

to rationalize.

when you quiet your mind,

what do you hear?

with your ears?

with your body?

energy vibrating all around

connecting you, me, the tree.

we are all one.

the world is pure potential

to be shaped as you dream

with our minds the only limit to reality.

To read about this painting as a work in progress, visit yesterday’s post.

Linking up to Paint Party Friday.

WIP Wednesday: Consciousness

Work in Progress Wednesday is about sharing art in all of it’s phases – ugly duckling to beautiful swan. Visit this post for more on this series.

I’ve been getting a little sick of the colors on my palette. Don’t get me wrong – I still LOVE purple and magenta, and will use them liberally. But when your color palette is mostly two colors, things can get…a little…. boring. SO – this next painting, I started with purple, but then I added orange and red – two colors I’ve never used in a painting before.

Then, came several layers of cool colors – officially the “fugly” stage. I really wasn’t sure where this would go from here.

I took a break for a few days and went to a music/consciousness festival with a few close friends – two days of art, meditation, and music. By the time I got home I was ready to PAINT! I’ve been so inspired since I got back.

This painting is turning into a “redo” of THIS painting. It’s for the same friend, but I never really felt like the old one was finished – it was always missing some depth. Now, I think I’m starting to hit on what I was searching for the first time.

This painting will still wind up with liberal amounts of purple and magenta, but the lime green and orange are nice surprises to add to the mix.

What gets you really jazzed up and clamoring to paint? Music? Meditation? Nature??

The Leap

I had this dream a few weeks ago, whose story and lessons have been forever etched into my mind, spurring me to great action.

In the dream, I stole some shoes for me & my sister. When I got them home, I realized they didn’t quite fit – they weren’t the right style for me. So I took them back to the shoe store and tried to exchange them and got caught by the clerks. They knew I hadn’t paid for the shoes. When they confronted me, I dropped the shoes and made for the door. Once outside, I ran for my car and jumped in, speeding away from the embarrassment and certain consequences. As I drove away, this beautiful Indian girl appeared in my passenger seat. We raced through town, dodging bullets from dozens of enormous military men that popped up, like villains in a video game, on the sides of the road. Finally, we arrived at this house. I knew our (especially her) safety depended on us reaching the third floor.

The strange thing is, I’ve been in this house before. Not in real life – it doesn’t resemble anything I’ve ever seen. But I know I’ve been in this exact house before in my dreams. We make our way through the bustling familiarity of the first level, weaving our way through tables of people we know. We race through secret passageways and up winding staircases, searching for a way to out-run our pursuers, eventually making our way up to the third floor. We find a bedroom and the Indian girl flings open the closet, producing a beautiful, red ceremonial wedding dress. She puts on the dress and says she’s ready. She runs and jumps out of the window, landing safely on her feet at the side of her prince. In a few seconds, they are married, and all worry and stress regarding her safety is gone. Everyone stops chasing us and her freedom has been secured.

Here is my interpretation. This is a metaphor for the search of my authentic, creative self and the path required for me to make a living as an artist. The stealing of shoes? That’s me trying on other people’s artistic techniques and methods (which is necessary in the beginning)… but they never feel quite “right”. As I run from the store, I start to test out my own artistic methods and theories (the Indian girl representing my creativity). When forging this new path, fledgling creativity must be protected from all of the (sometimes) well-meaning bullets people will inevitably shoot my way. And not just the bullets from external sources, sometimes from my own doubts and insecurities about the value of what I bring.

The search through the house represents searching my soul for the authentic pieces of my creativity I want to share. The leap. Oh, the leap from the window. That leap means a lot. Leaping out of the house of my comfort zone. The leap represents taking these carefully protected ideas and dreams that I’ve nourished and flinging them out into the world for others to either love or hate. In order for me to get from where I am to where I want to be, it will take a big leap, which scares the shit out of me. The prince signifies safety, money, and security… the (if I’m being realistic) important and necessary things that I want art to help me achieve so that I can do this for a living.

The main thing I took away from this dream is that in order for me to get from where I am now, to where I want to be, the leap is my next move.

And it’s a coming.

As I wrote my morning pages this morning, an idea started to form. Of what my next creative offering will be. And it feels right. It may not make me a lot of money right away, it may not last forever… who knows? But I do know it is the next right move (leap) to get me on my way to my prince.

Stay tuned….

A Mixed Media Canvas: Stardust

We are made up of the same stuff, you and I.  When you break us down into our smallest bits, it’s all the same.  A sea of quarks, buzzing around in a pattern uniquely you.  Not just our bodies, but the moon, the stars, the mountains, the rain.

Those moments of light, glimpses where I see the expansiveness of my energy… give me hope for what awaits on the other side.  When I die, where will my energy go?  Will the quarks that make up my existence bumble around until they form something new?  A star, perhaps?  So I can be a pure light, bursting forth.  Releasing into the universe to live another existence.

 

Linking up to Paint Party Friday.