I have my own art space in my own house! It's in my basement, so it's not the most beautiful or cozy place, but it will be all the more comfortable for throwing paint around and not worrying about making a mess or getting paint on anything, or everything. :-) I want better lighting, but I'll figure that out at some point.
Today I had stuff I "had" to do that I wasn't looking forward to. My plan was to spend the day ripping up carpets in the apartment I'll be renting out—I bought a duplex—and cleaning. Difficult and dirty work. I did get the carpets ripped up, but I sandwiched it with artwork. Part of the reason I got the sudden desire to do art was (one) to use my new space, but also to procrastinate. :-)
I worked on a painting of a child before the dirty work, and then tonight (afterward) I made a collage in my art journal. I'm not happy with the painting, but it did get me working with art materials, after months of not doing much artwork at all. The last time I did a lot of art was for 29 Faces in May last year. This year, with the new house and other things taking a lot of energy, I didn't have the motivation, and I still don't. I'd like to focus on painting and creating more abstract works, and just playing with color and materials. I have a couple of classes with Julie Prichard that I paid for a long time ago and never completed, plus tons of Lifebook 2012 lessons that I never did. I'm going to work on those, but I think I'm more interested in Julie's lessons, creating some paintings to hang on my walls and color my rooms with my own artwork.
So tonight I played with scraps of paper, glue, and a little paint. It was quite relaxing, despite the fact that I thought being down in the basement might be dark, depressing, and cold. I listened to a podcast and just played (playing is usually difficult for me), without worrying too much about what I was doing, or how it would come out. I'd like to do more of this, and perhaps spend at least a few minutes every day working on something, until doing art comes as naturally as ... anything else I do every day.
I'm feeling very wordy tonight. It must be the relaxation of creation. Art as therapy!
