I love it when I accidentally create a painting that I really like.  Some recent posts by artists I follow inspired me to dust off my BIG art journal and play around on 18×24 paper.  I was going to just do a random collage, and was more focused on the background than on what I was going to put on it.

Halfway through, I had a sinking suspicion that the whole thing was just going to be a big mess.  An experiment gone bad.  The background looked muddy and messy.  Blech.

In spite of not loving it, I decided to go ahead and put something in the foreground, and sketched in a couple of heads, which soon evolved into these dancing queens.  When Karlie saw the rough sketch she said, “Oh naked black ladies, what a surprise.”  Black ladies, dancing ladies, naked ladies… they all seem to be a recurring theme in my art.  I’m actually happy with the way the background turned out after all, as well as the colorful head scarves with the wild protruding hair, the wonderfully sagging breasts…the whole thing makes me happy.  

Here are a couple of new projects I’ve been working on.  I left my bound art journal format and went to largish 11×15″ watercolor paper to give myself a bigger canvas without a big seam in the center.  I forgot how much I love watercolor paints, crayons and pencils, which is what I primarily used on my Crowned Goddess.

I’ve become sort of fascinated with symbols recently.  I’ve been researching symbols and their meanings throughout history and across cultures, and thinking about what some of my personal symbols are that show up frequently in my art.  Faces, eyes, breasts, naked ladies, wild hair, wings, circles, spirals, suns, stars, hearts, flowers, cats, swirly trees, and curly plants are a few that come to mind.  I’m not sure how much of that is related to simplicity and my ability to draw those things, versus some personal meaning.  I do think the wings and flying that appear so often may be related to my desire to break free and fly (and my one little word for the year, FREEDOM).

Anyway, in the Crowned Goddess I experimented with crayon resist, drawing some of my personal favorite symbols in the background with a white wax pastel before doing the watercolor crayon  background.  It was fun to see the previously invisible symbols start peaking through.

Take Flight was done mostly with acrylics.  I also used some light modeling paste and stencils to add a bit of texture and depth to my layers.  I do love playing with lots of different supplies.

I still struggle with an internal push and pull when it comes to art, though.  I can spend hours looking at inspirational blogs, images, online art classes, etc., and get really excited about trying new techniques.  But when I have time to actually sit down and make some art, I have a hard time getting started and end up procrastinating.  Then, once I do start, I will realize an hour has gone by and I’ve hardly accomplished anything (it can take me a ridiculously long time to make a seemingly simple little piece of art), and I wonder if I’m wasting a lot of time when I could/should be doing something more productive.  Today was a perfect example.  I had time for art because it’s my day off.  But I procrastinated by spending too much time on line.  Then I had the urge to go shop for new art supplies. (more procrastination?)  I resisted the urge, and made myself sit down and use some of the MANY supplies I already have.  Suddenly half the day was gone, and all I had to show for it was a sketch of three dancing ladies and a tiny bit of watercolor on their bodies.  I don’t have a lot of patience, and I like quick results.  Drawing and painting is slow and painstaking.  I love it and get lost in it, but I also struggle with how much time and effort it takes for something that is just “play.”