Well it's been another week, and very little has changed here in my world. Last time here.
Do you prefer your good or bad news first? Today I'm going to start with the bad so we can end on a brighter note. Bad news item 1: I haven't gotten back into the swing of things after the holidays. I'm not painting consistently yet, and I have very little motivation. I painted a bit once or twice this past week, but not enough.
As I wrote yesterday, I think "same shit, different day" is my overall sense of my life. I'm feeling very stuck and hopeless in my artistic endeavours as well as personal & professional. Then our President had to go and encourage a coup on Wednesday with no consequences thus far. I'm feeling pretty disheartened at the state of the U.S. and for me that's presented at various times as impotent rage, apathy, and self medicating with food and drink. So that's bad news item 2, which is definitely a factor in item 1.
Some good news then: I think we settled on the piece for my MIL. I made a watercolor palette knife background I was finally happy with (third time's the charm again) and I'm adding some collage flowers for interest and to feature a color I was having issues including otherwise. I have been dragging my feet a bit on finishing it...because it requires dragging out my iron! I used a precut piece of Arches watercolor paper, and while it was convenient, and Arches is a very reliable, high quality brand....it also tends to buckle alarmingly. So I'd like to iron the piece before attaching the collage flowers and determining what I'm going to charge for it. I have no confidence in my pricing--in the past I've tried to guess at what the market would bear based on what other artists charge, but I'm going to try a new, consistent pricing scheme this year I believe.
Another bit of good news: my husband gave me a Buddha Board for Christmas and I played with that a few days where I did no other painting or art. If you're not familiar with this tool, it's a slate-looking board that you paint on with water. The water leaves a dark mark and slowly dries, so you can reuse the board over and over to practice. Also something something zen living in the moment and the transience of all things....
I have a copy of The Chinese Brush Painting Bible and keep meaning to work more with it. I think the Buddha board is going to be the perfect fit for that. No more worry about wasted paper! No permanent proof of how terrible my brush coordination is! My husband is a thoughtful gift giver and I think he did a great job with this one. I would never have bought this for myself but it's shaping up to be both practical and pleasant.
