Things I think about when I’m coloring

1. 1.  How the smell of crayons brings my inner child out with no coaxing whatsoever. Instant inspiration.  She who holds all the keys opens all the doors!

2.  How making decisions about colors change everything:  cool, warm, impressionistic (opposites on the color wheel for shadowing), using black.  I used to have a navy blue suit I wore with a high neck white blouse.  Husband would always say:  what dragons are getting slain today? when I wore that.  These days women wear red to show power. In my house I choose pale pale pastels and neutral for my walls because I have such a riot of eclectic art and sculpture in my house, and my furniture is anything but background.

3.  How there really isn’t one answer about the way to create a picture with crayons.  And there really isn’t one answer about the way to create a life. 

4.  How in this picture the quick sketch of the cat and the woman’s hands didn’t turn out the way I wanted.  You can’t erase some things but you can work with them until you’re the only one that knows they’re there.  Other people will fill in the blanks with their own projections anyways.  Why worry about it?

5.  How coloring in a lot of directions gives the picture more energy than coloring all in one direction.  How we can change directions anytime we choose, including going back to the original direction.  How we don’t because (you fill in the blank here.  Everyone’s got a sound, logical reason for staying stuck.  Which is often defined as safe and secure.  Or reality.)

If you like to color, you can find the uncolored sketch here.  Help yourself!  This is my contribution back to all the participants of Art Every Day Month (AEDM) who share their creations and who make every November something I look forward to as much as holidays anymore.  Always thanks to Leah Piken-Kolidas who created this amazing community.

Do you own at least one pack of crayons?  Can you still find time in your life to play with your inner child?  How might your life be different if you allowed your childlike  innocence out to play?

Wylde Women’s Wisdom

There are paths but first you must take the step and believe they are there, even when you can’t see them.  Sort of like Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail when he had to step out over the abyss without being able to see what was going to catch his footfall.  I love that scene and carry it with me as encouragement.  I also surround myself with others who are on the trail of the creative spirit, following their heART for all its worth and, like me, may be scared to death it won’t work (but don’t think that, or, goddess forbid, say it aloud or the devils multiply like rabbits).  Tammy Vitale (from a “Women Friends” April 14, 2006)