These past six months or so have involved an art pivot that looks like a slowdown.
I’m still making art on a weekly basis, but more of my work has been thoughtful and experimental. I’m taking time to put things in notebooks. I’m letting myself feel unconcerned about producing something that can be sold.
This has been quite freeing!
The fact is, I still have a day job teaching middle schoolers that drains my creative energy during the school week. If the sole purpose of painting is to fill my own creative tank back up–for now, that’s enough.
Sometimes I just experiment with abstract marks in a notebook, like the 8×8″ acrylic below:
I’m also doing some exercises from a book that I bought on painting. It’s called Color Relativity, by Kami Mendlik, a Minnesota painter who publishes a lot of painting videos on Instagram.
The painting below is an exercise from that book, a study in value: just a white bowl and mug painted with only black and white paint:
I have also been bringing my Emergency Art Kit along with me on trips and hikes. It’s a very small watercolor kit, a couple of brushes, a paper cup, and a notebook. It fits in my backpack with lots of room to spare.
The notebook is a really easy way to complete a plein air sketch for later use.
Finally, I’ve been making art and giving it away. When I know it’s going to be a gift, I feel a sense of joy the whole way through, hoping for and imagining a joyful response from the recipient.
This new phase in painting is just fine with me, even if there is no idea of an outcome. I’m either idling, indulging in self-care, or figuring out what’s next. Or all three.
