One of the best things about starting this blog has been the opportunity it has afforded me to play. Perhaps I should clarify. It’s allowing me to work at what I love, but in doing so, this work seems a lot more like play than it ever has before.
I’m one of those people who always have to be doing something and I always feel the need to be moving forward, working toward reaching the next goal. Sometimes because things haven’t turned out exactly as I hoped in my life, I feel like I’m racing against a clock with no time to waste. This has often meant forgoing things that I plain find fun like trying out some new art technique. Suddenly I have a forum for these projects and thus, my work has become play.
When I was in high school I was torn between becoming an art major and a writing major. I applied to Rhode Island School of Design and was accepted, but ended up choosing Middlebury College instead. I started as an art major there, but suddenly art stopped being fun. It was all about being critiqued. Throughout the years I have drawn, mostly pastel and pen-and-ink, for Christmas presents and specific projects, but now I find myself creating art to accompany the stories on this blog, trying new techniques and looking forward to what I can experiment with next.
Today, I added color to my picture of Joan and the pug puppy. I used watercolor pencils and a little bit of pen and ink and pastel. I like the result. I learned that they make tinted water-soluble graphite so I’m going to see if I can find some for future projects.
It feels like a palette of possibility has been laid out before me and I am happy to take up the brush of creativity and paint.
