This painting almost hit the garbage twice during its creation. The first time I felt it had been overworked, but decided to just ‘experiment’ with it, using it as a practice piece before attempting another one. The second time I was about to toss it, it was because I had become tired of struggling to make the Fibonacci spirals appear in the centre. Layer after layer of paint was applied, but nothing seemed to get me closer to the desired result. In fact, the centre just became a muddied mess, and I was so over it. Then, I started to play with pointillism, and a tiny ray of hope reappeared. I put it aside for a few days, then glanced at it again this Wednesday, while I was cleaning up my art studio. Although the image made my heart sing for a moment, I began questioning the process it took for me to get it to this state. I was still not sure I had the courage to post it as part of the Studio 52 project. Doubt silenced the song in my heart.
Then something amazing happened!
But first, you need the backstory:
My sister-in-law, Angela Wiens, has developed a thriving yoga practice, and offers yoga retreats incorporating journal writing and meditation. She is also a talented photographer, and in 2014 she used her own nature photographs to develop a deck of 58 reflection cards to use in meditation and as journal writing prompts. She used images of nature on the cards, as she believes they “…remind us of our inner wisdom, our innate state of balance and truth, and our connection to all living beings.” (They are beautiful. You can order the cards at www.yogainnerspirit.com/reflection-cards).
Now, back to me cleaning my studio on Wednesday:
I opened a box to unpack it and there, on the top, was the deck of ‘Yoga Inner Spirit’ reflection cards that Angela had gifted me. My eyes went immediately to the graphic image of a sunflower at the bottom of the cards. I took the cards out of their case and started flipping through them, appreciating the finer details of the sunflower image, the way the overlapping Fibonacci spirals were depicted with red lines. I wondered if I should apply a similar technique to my painting, to make the spirals stand out a little more. Suddenly, two cards jumped out of my hand and fell onto the floor. I picked them up and saw that the two cards were “Creativity” and “Inspiration”. Below is a picture of the words printed on these cards.
As soon as the goosebumps and the lump in my throat subsided, I chose to take the appearance of these cards and the words written upon them as a sign. I did no further work on the painting and decided to post it, just as it was, finished or not… My heart had started singing again.
#ChasingtheSun #YogaInnerSpirit #Studio52 #creativity #inspiration #pointillism