I subscribe to several inspirational newsletters and podcasts. They don’t always stay non-political, so never mind the person’s name today. He does, however, start every newsletter with ‘Hello Bright and Shiny Susan.’ Even if I don’t read the rest of the newsletter, he’s given me a beautiful gift.
The gift is acknowledgment. I am inspired to acknowledge myself. I can view the day anew, like I’m looking out at the physical world I’m in and saying, “Good Morning. I’m grateful to be here. I’m open to what I expect will be life, light, joy, and peace”. Really that’s all I need to start a fresh day. That is what inspired me to paint this little painting.
If you’re following me, you know I’m packing to move. I realized I packed art materials that I need. So this painting is on a 12″ x 12″ wood panel. I gessoed the board and, using my compass, I drafted “all the points of one” rotated 8 times at 22.5 degrees”. Actually, I did that twice. I divided the outer circle into 16 parts once. Then, I divided the inner circle the same way. That’s when I realized I had packed my acrylics. So I started painting the face with watercolor. If you’ve painted with water color you know it can be unforgiving. You can’t push watercolor paint around. I finished the rest of the geometry using watercolor, neon pencils, and neon paint. Then, I used a fixative to hold the watercolor in place. Climbing on top of 7 feet of boxes I found the box of acrylics and finished the face.
When I felt the painting was complete, I looked at it from my left brained psychologically educated perspective. My original intention was to show a child looking in wonder at a marvelous world. I wanted to depict a new day. The expression was not meant to be overly dramatic. I know that the two sides of the face are very different from each other. Check it out. Look in a mirror and cover half your face and then the other half. The left physical side represents your right (thinking) brain and the right side reflects your left (feeling) brain. To me, the right brain looks a little more stressed! But that’s okay because it’s probably true for me.
susan krieg 