Abstract Soul Searching

I had plans to go for a run today, but my tummy decided to be mean and nauseating and my kneecap decided to hurt, so I took a day off and- you'll never guess- painted.
I really am rather predictable.  But I DID do something different today- I used tempera paint, not watercolor!

pAiNtS:)

When looking for my various paint bottles I came across a childhood memory.  No, not my Lite Brite set (still trying to locate that), but my Galactic Glue! I miss this stuff.  Sadly, the glue remaining inside had become clumpy and unusable, but I found a way to repurpose the bottle.

Moving forward with my life, I located the proper materials needed for a therapeutic abstract session.  Those would be some variety of paint, a tool to brush the paint onto the object being painted (fingers count), and an object to make pretty.  Then I immediately begin throwing paint around because blank canvases are scary.

... it's so blank.... *shivers*

I PUT SOME PAINT ON IT

That's a bit better

(By the way, I am studying for math as I type this up. Anyone know what in the world the rational root theorem is!? I am destined to be a writer and artist of sorts, not a mathematician.)

Around this time, my piece starts speaking to me.

"I'm colorful! Am I art now???"

Yes and no, piece of cardboard.  Yes you are slightly more artistic now, no you are not finished."

Now comes my weird habit of using things that aren't "proper" paintbrushes that I feel make lovely paintbrushes.  Today, I used a toothbrush (don't worry, not mine).  I love the texture it gave.

The toothbrush really came in handy for the strokes that make up the hair. It was about this point that I decided to make my little painting a depiction of a girl.  

Some facial features later and the girl is finished for now

At this point my workspace looks like this 

which I love. And can't abandon, so I must paint some more 

I worked on this for a bit, it's a work in progress :)

Art is great for getting out what you really feel, deep down.  Or at least that's what I've been told.  One of the little pieces I did today was this oddball

Well what is it exactly? No, it is not my best replica of cave art.  What it clearly isn't is an actual nice painting with a deep meaning. So I'll give it one.  

The yellow figure is a girl.  Her position is one of a frustrated person, throwing her arms to the sky.  She is surrounded by a grey color immediately, and although she is close to the pink, she isn't quite there.  Maybe all of her little yellow friends are already past the grey, but she is still stuck there.  She might just be waiting for the right little yellow guy to come along and then she will journey to the pink portion of the piece.  And look, she's still bright and yellow.  Yes, frustrated, but she is still bright.  Maybe at the moment she doesn't need to be over in the pink, she doesn't need another yellow guy, and she's happy all alone.

But maybe she is longing to move out of her grey area.  What if all her frustration at the situation is just building up inside her yellow little stick body??? She could be jealous of all of the little yellow figures who get nice pink backgrounds. That could be it.  Will she EVER venture into the pink expanses of the cardboard?! It seems like it'll never ever happen. I'm sure if she could, the little yellow girl would sigh longingly and dramatically right now.

Moving on....

I hung up the possibly complete girl.  She looks ravishing next to my Impressionism and Post-Impressionism calendar. 

In conclusion, I think painting was better than the run I almost took.

In other news, I finally found more of the notebook paper I love! I really like the type with no red lines. I find them so inhibiting.

This makes me such a happy girl.  In conclusion, like this toothbrush clearly did, I enjoyed painting and I look forward to using this nice, non-hindering paper.