Friday, February 1, 2013

Cleaning off the Paint Brushes Enjoying the Process Part II

Recently I wrote a blog about enjoying the process without expecting perfection.  See Keeping Hope Journey: Enjoying the Process

This post is somewhat of a continuation of that post.  The ingredients in this post are:

  • Canvas
  • Mod Podge
  • Acrylic Paint
  • Stairway to Heaven sheet music
  • Scissors
  • Misc paint brushes
  • Lots of newspaper (to protect the table)
  • Old skinny jeans
  • Scrap book paper
  • Burlap
  • Stencil
  • Cheesy little words describing life
  • Black Sharpie marker
  • Equal portions of curiosity, patience,  awe, enjoyment, and poorly lit photos to document the process.
The final product ended up looking like this:






My first ever mixed media art piece,  and I kind of like the outcome, little imperfections and all. Taking a picture to do the project justice was a lot harder than to actually create it.

The purpose of this post is not to describe the process of making a piece of art, but to show to myself and the world, that on a very small scale I am capable of practicing what I preached at the end of the first part of my Enjoying the Process post.

Creating my tree of life took time, much longer than it usually takes me to create a piece of art.  I started out with a blank canvas and the mentioned supplies.  Right now, my life is more or less a blank canvas.  Last year was a BAD year, and over the past couple of weeks I have made some decisions that have helped me create a mostly blank canvas...I decided to give up on starting my own social media marketing and PR business.  My heart wasn't in it, and I no longer enjoyed the process, all it did was to cause me stress.

My goal with the art project was to play around with mixed media, I had never done it before, I had no expectations, and with a blank canvas it seemed like a fun thing to try.

Creating the piece forced me to do what I am terrible at doing in life... It forced me to wait for paint (mostly glue, but paint just sounds better) to dry.  It forced me to take breaks, in which I could think about what I liked about the picture at that point, and to think about what would look nice next.

So far, with my newly created blank canvas of life, I have started to put on the first layer, I have started taking horseback riding lessons.  I go once a week, which gives me time to reflect on what I did and what I learned during the lesson, and it also gives me time to think about what challenges I may want to take on the following week....Right now, the first layer is drying.  Another layer I have added is that I have started to attend DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) at FSU's psychology clinic.  This is a thick layer, as it required a long term commitment on my part, it is suggested that you attend group therapy once a week for about a year. It is a thick layer, but much like the horseback riding, I am forced to every single week let the layer dry...and weekly I will need to carefully tweak it to make it better.

I have yet to start really adding color to my picture, but I have a few colors in mind I may try out over the next few months...

I have no idea what the final picture will look like, I just know that by slowly adding a layer at a time, the canvas may some day show a picture, a picture with imperfections I am sure, but none the less a picture I created by simply reflecting, tasting, smelling, listening, and most importantly... By enjoying the process.

Peace Friends.

P

Contact email keepinghopejourney@gmail.com

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