...and the new theme is...

...the (optional) CED theme for April is SPRING! 

Holy cannoli...so what do I do with that information?!

Well, I had already decided earlier in the day that I wanted to paint this month.  Driving home I was still trying to figure out...do I go with canvas paper, canvas board or stretched canvas?  The first two would be cheaper options...but the framing costs would make those more expensive costs in the long run...plus I wanted more options for sizes...so I went with stretched canvas.  I chose 16x20 for the size...which might be the size for the whole series...probably will because I know that I will have a meltdown if the pieces are different sizes...just sayin'. (#OCDartist...seriously!)

After the canvas was bought and I got the email back from Leah with the theme...I decided that I can kind of work within that theme.  I am working with what I consider to be a spring color palette, which includes tints of my favorite jewel tone colors...think Easter eggs and such. 

An additional challenge that I am going to give to myself is to try my hardest to stay loose and attempt to paint in a more abstract fashion.  To tell you the truth, painting scares me.  I know I mentioned this in my previous post...but it really does.   I spent a little time tonight gathering some images for inspiration and looking at quotes about painting and I came across this;

Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.

-Jackson Pollock

And then it kind of hit me.  I think I get scared when I paint because it makes me nervous... it's like I don't know who or what I am in this medium.  I don't know if that makes sense, I have by no means mastered drawing or collage or any other medium...but I feel at least more comfortable working with them. But painting...even if I paint over a hundred paintings (and actually, I definitely have over the years) I still do not feel like I know who I am as a painter.  I think part of this is because I only took one painting class in college.

That class was the a summer session.  I have Mr. Elmore, one of the BEST teachers I have ever had.  I carved a little corner of the studio for myself that summer and filled it up with various works in progress and inspirations.  It was my life that summer.  See, I had always drawn and painted in high school but once I got to college I started getting into textiles.  I took my foundations classes, then my surveys in metals and ceramics...but I was infatuated with fibers.  I weaved, I screen-printed, I hand dyed fabric, I beaded...I even attempted some very poorly constructed wearable arts. But I just didn't paint...not until that summer with Mr. Elmore.

And I remember how alive I felt.  I remember how excited I was about the wet acrylic moving across the canvas, painting impasto...watching it dry and leaving ridges, small landscapes of dried paint on this large surface.

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And I painted some after undergrad...just a little here and there...my bridal portrait...a gift for mom...some msc. faces for my friend Gin...

...and after I moved to Florida I started to pick back up with some painting here and there.  I got a major 'inspiration jump start' after attending a Zora Neale Hurston seminar through the Florida Humanities Council...then I started making pieces with text...then specfically for art shows...and then I was sidetracked by my tree series one summer so I painted a tree to go along with the drawings I created.

...and fast forward to pretty much now.  Well, 2013 at least.  I have some paintings on display and for sell in downtown Hollywood.  I haven't really sold any, but it feels good to just know that folks can see them. 

 I have been painting here and there...but I would never dare call myself a painter.  And I don't know that I would be after this month coming up, either.  But I am going to make a concentrated effort try, so there's that.


Per usual...we'll see where this series goes!