tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764271.post-62586562918303479302008-04-25T08:21:00.000-07:002008-04-25T09:44:33.027-07:00I'm laughing as I type this because I remember a time in my life when I was told tat I was too emotional a person. While other artists swear by the ruling of their emotions, over the last few years I have come to realize that it's okay to be emotional but I still needed better control over how things effected me.<br /><br />Always looking for a creative angle, my partner inspired me to undertake a new artistic project with a painting. I marvel at his patience and depth of character so undertaking this was as much a tribute to him as it was to myself.<br /><br />The goal was to take a canvas and apply a layer of paint or strokes to it every time I had to deal with something emotional that seemed to be having a negative effect on me. I tried the project for two weeks and the conclusion is that I have a lot more peace and calmness in myself. I am of course, grateful for his suggestion because it was a constructive method of feedback that worked in harmony with who I am. While merely pointing out a character flaw is easy, it takes a good deal of trust and strength on my part to accept the idea and run with it.<br /><br />As you can see here, the piece is not like my more typical structured paintings. Maybe one day I'll examine the correlation between my stuctured work and the almost desperate way I cling to that structure versus my current emotional state. I would venture to say somewhere in there my own control issues are prevalent. But with this piece I can say first and foremost it's been fun.<br /><br /><a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3090/2441206828_2790fdb466.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3090/2441206828_2790fdb466.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Several times during those two weeks, 14 times to be exact, I applied a layer of black paint to the canvas in an effort to expunge some negative emotion I was feeling. Anger, sadness, exhaustion, frustration... they all came out in layers of varying thickness and depth, with any number of brush strokes.<br /><br />By the end of it, I think the work has a definite underlying structure and still appeals to my aesthetic side. All my thanks to N. for believing in me.deedee9:14http://www.blogger.com/profile/07581078778395244254noreply@blogger.com