It's been a slog. . .

Maybe I have to admit it's been a difficult couple of months? Snow is challenging to reproduce on paper and then the next, thing, the guy portrait sort of creeped me out although I totally enjoyed looking at everyones version of the guy.

Monica told me to keep working on rocks because something she saw in the rocks that I was doing and she wanted me to keep pushing. There's still some snow in shady corners and maybe I could do rocks and snow. Off I go to Interstate State Park! 

I found my stack of rocks (billion years old basalt formations) in the park and settled in. Roz's webinars this month was about layers and glazing and I started doing that, which I usually don't. The first 3 attempts of that were very unsatisfying -- mostly waiting for paint to dry and I didn't like the pale layers. I will do something on top and chop them up for postcards. 

My 4th attempt was much better (bottom image). I was almost out of time and I painted like I usually paint and liked most of the result. By the time I finished the last of the snow had melted at this spot. 

Walking back to the trailhead I thought about Kat saying "STOP!" and Monica saying "Keep pushing yourself and keep going" and remembered what Regula always reminds us to ask ourselves, "Who is your audience?" 

Shannon invited me to join her MCAD class for an evening of music from the Douala Soul Collective / Dumont Doumbe and haptic drawing/painting. THAT WAS JUST WHAT I NEEDED to shake some of the cobwebs out of my head and rules out of my brain. Top image is the result. 

Reminders to me: 

1. My audience of 1 is me. 

2. I'm making marks to remind me of where I was and of the day, not to reproduce an exact likeness.  

3. Get out of my head more often.