Lent/Wind - the pencil sketch of the piece I'm getting ready to paint
Today was all about preparing to paint. I am working on a silk painting that switches out with one of the paintings that is part of the installation at HAUMC. I was transferring the image and preparing the canvas to accept the silk dyes. Although it doesn’t take any great artistic genius to do this, the preparation part always seems to take me twice as long as it should, probably because it is my least favorite part – and the least fun part – of creating a work. I don’t know, today was a boring day as far as creative stimuli goes. I just had to be disciplined, and do the work to move on to the next step. Discipline is not the easiest thing for me! Below is a picture (again) from Aztec dancers who performed at the Poor People’s March back in August. I thought this woman was breathtaking. I am thinking of starting a series of angel/deity icons that draw inspiration from indigenous dress from tribes around the world, you know, just something beautiful, not so heavy-handed as some of my recent stuff. Sometimes the completion of a piece drains rather than energizes me – some of the pieces I created during the Fall were like this … although the painting from yesterday was very enlivening. When I start feeling that drain that’s when I know I’m needing to create something beautiful, just for the sake of creating something beautiful.
dancer
