Allspice & Acrylics: I Will Be Free - Falling into Spring with a stroke of a paintbrush...

Sunday Sunday.

And what a Sunday!

Hey everyone - hope you're having a great weekend so far. I've spent a bunch of time in the studio today and wanted to share my latest work...

In The Studio...

(When it's organized, of course!

I've been trying to use all of the 16 x 20 canvases I have stored up - I probably have about 20 left! So I decided to paint another series on a larger scale with three of these babies...

Paints ready!!!!

First I covered the three canvases in lots of paper goods - namely coupons, fun leopard print paper I found in a box, an old wedding magazine, a Judy Blume book, and some random labels I discovered on the floor.

Then I poured some clear gesso over everything and mixed it with water to make everything stick.

I mixed in just the smallest touch of paint with it to give it a bit of color - I wanted to leave the text very visible, so I really tried to make it mostly a color wash.

Then I brushed on some more clear gesso and layered on a bunch of napkins and tissue paper - like decoupage.

All of the layering took almost an hour - it's very therapeutic to do repetitive actions like peeling apart the napkins into their individual sheets, laying them over the canvas, painting over them again and again and again...It's nice to go into a place of non-thinking and just do.

Then I did my favorite part - going crazy spraying stuff and throwing paint on the canvas, and then banging the heck out of all of them like I'm playing the drums. Eventually I've got to post a video of me doing this - I'm swinging the canvases around like batons, banging them, waving them around, hitting them, throwing them - quite noisy, but very fun! (And messy!)

I let them dry and drip a little bit - the best part about this whole little process of mine is having absolutely no clue how it's going to turn out! Experimentation and surprise are just delicious elements of life.

I've never done this kind of abstract work in a big series like this, but it was very fun to do. Next, I added more paint, some puff paint, glitter, embossing powder, more spray, and the reckless, fearless attitude of both caring and not caring at all! My passion was behind it, but I was not overthinking and concerned about the outcome - I just knew it would turn out great either way...

...Now if that's not a metaphor for life, then I don't know what is!!!

And so this is how I ended up: I wanted to write some words - wasn't sure exactly what. But the words "I Will Be Free" came to me after seeing how I felt after painting this. It was so wonderfully liberating to dancing around juggling three big canvases in my hands. This was my manifestation for every remaining moment of my life - to constantly seek more and more freedom from the limitations we place on ourselves every day - even limits we don't know we are setting.

Because the truth is, there is no limit to what we can wish for. Aim high, I say because why not? Having a dream is risk-free. And it's what keeps that little spark in your life. Believe me, if I had lost hope the entire span of years I was unable to eat or drink - what else would I have held onto? Hope was my anchor to ground me and my star to constantly reach towards.

So yes, I know that theoretically I could have been "done." But I came back this morning and finished it up, because you know, as always, I like stuff. Plus I got some fun goodies at Michael's yesterday and I wanted to play around a little bit :)

I realized that every time I buy a canvas, they come with these four little wooden pieces - I guess to mount it or something. So I was playing around, and realized I could glue the wood together and make little sculptures with them! Then I really started having fun...

I made my little flower girls who I adore so much, and decided to have them trapped inside - using the canvas wood pieces to make a little "room" for them.

I love their smiling faces - I just get a kick out of these two gals.

I put one of my flower girls in the first canvas, dreaming of liberation, trapped behind a window and reaching for the lock...

To show the general arc of movement, I used leaves to trace a pattern - in all of my series, I always tend to make the sweeping movement from the lower left corner to the upper right corner - it just feels right - like we are always reaching upwards and forwards.

And in the last panel I have my second flower gal still trapped and chained in the upper right corner, but surrounded by angel wings. Oh heck, they are just so happy, look at their smiling faces! I love it.

Hold on, it just occurred to me that I forgot to add my signature teardrop anywhere here - not my flowers, birds - nothing. So tempted to run back to the studio and add that in really fast...

However, maybe I should sit with that unrest. Maybe this is a transition for me...I Will Be Free...perhaps I will evolve into a stage where I don't need to add that one tear?

Can't leave a painting without it!

I am - after all - getting married in less than three months!!!!

Working and taking it all in...

It's so wonderful working on a large scale - I love being physical in the studio and using the entire wave of my arm, make grandiose, sweeping movements across the canvases. I can't wait until it gets warmer and I can take a huge canvas outside and dance away like Jackson Pollock.

This Pollock painting is featured in an excellent article reflecting on his work.

I've heard that Pollock literally used to dance over a canvas dripping his paint, and for me, that is such a joyful representation of what it means to create art. You can learn more about his painting techniques at this link.

There are wonderful videos of him painting live, like this video from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art...

Or this fragment of the film on his life.

I am really inspired by Pollock's abstractions.

By the way, I love the Khan Academy Website. It is a database where you can basically learn anything. I found this site through a great article I read a while ago: 40 websites that will make you cleverer right now from a nifty little website called Ink Tank. The article lists a plethora of other websites where you can learn things for free - which is great!!! The more you know...

Transitions and leaving behind...

Who knows. Maybe it's a good thing I wasn't able to add my tear to this series - the first time pretty much too! Life is bitter, life is sweet, but that's what makes it even sweeter.

"I Grow..."

Just something to think about, I guess.

A "broken heart" piece I created at a difficult time, displayed at my first art show.

I do honor everything I've been through...

Lots of broken hearts and tears in my art...

But you've always got to do some internal "Spring Cleaning" - you know, to make sure that all stuff has room to flow in.

A picture I took when I was starving and wasn't able to eat :(

Art Update!!!

On an exciting note, Brandon took me to Lowe's again this weekend to buy more fun speckling, stucco, and other fun textures putty-like things to dig my fingertips into and get recklessly messy...

So I have an exciting update on my four seasons canvas idea...

Thank you Spackling - you rock!

All four seasons are going to be there, in all there Tree Glory!!!

Yay for trying new things! Yay for having a I-Like-To-Build-Stuff-DIY-Home-Depot-Lowe's-loving' fiancé!!! You will see the finished product some time soon...