I started the day writing a haiku which by some miracle had nothing to do with hands, instead it was focused on my theme of the day: Grace.
Grace - the word, today
Felt in paint, seen in music
Washer flows over
I have had so much energy coursing through me it is… close to relentless, I think it is because I am so enjoying the vibe each of you, those who are participating in Art Every Day Month, bring to me when you comment and when I visit your blogs and witness your work and comment.
Something magic happens when we do this: support and witness one another’s creativity and art. It brings everything to a higher level. It reminds me of the poetry website I frequent so yesterday's movement through the block poem is exceptionally fitting for this post, too.Here is a link to my poem, "Percolate Again, Please" if you are interested.
It is natural, then, that I returned to creating visual art with my hands as my inspiration – and I am so in love with them and the process, it is like I am in a whirlwind hand romance it is so crazy.
I painted two watercolor hands focusing on “GRACE” and “YES” and then my friend, Cameron, called to see if I wanted to go to coffee at Dagny’s. I leaped at the opportunity, of course, but I grabbed my camera on my way out.
What did I take photos of at Dagny’s? Hands. More hands.
I started on the hand I was most excited about – a hand incorporating several of my portraits from my 365Self Portrait Project. It is a group from Flickr and being a part of this project completely shifted my view of myself: first physically and then, creatively.
I sensed my hand project is another form of self portrait and I was so excited to bring these two together. Perhaps too excited, because I went to quickly and the outcome is the me on the self portraits became… me with splotchy green skin.
When I first saw this, I was very upset – and then I remembered I have plenty of self portrait copies, all I have to do is wait to cover those images with the same images, but this time the paint will be completely dry before I do it and not bleed through. I almost thought about not telling on myself. I almost thought about pretending THAT hand hadn’t been made.
But then I realized, it is beautiful, even in green face.
It is just like I have found myself to be beautiful, even with my “less than perfect” appearance.
The more I think about it, the more I wonder if I should just leave the hand alone and keep myself with green skin?
Maybe I will make another version and keep this one, too. I remember at an exhibit of William Blake’s work how much I enjoyed seeing his rough drafts. I don’t think it is an accident that I got mottled blue – green skin.
Do you?
Hmmm. Makes me wonder how often we cover up “rough drafts” for fear of what other people think and what would happen if we let them see our not-so-smooth copies? I am not talking about “bad art” like we were discussing earlier in Art Every Day Month, I am talking about process and what we discover through the process.
What rough drafts have you been willing to expose?
What happened when you showed them?
What did you learn from it?
I will create from those prompts… feels just right. And if they inspire you, it is icing on the cake. I have been so inspired by this process, it feels natural to want to give inspiration back, to help move the process of each person along...
Ahhhh. Sweet. Rough. Drafts. and. Mottled. Green. Skin.
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