When Pigs Fly...#24

Somedays you just gotta laugh!  When what starts as a great idea fails, and fails again, and fails again... It's time to back up and take a different route.  So laugh with me here...while nothing is a guaranteed success there is much to be gained by failures, or so I am told.

Day #24 was to be a contour drawing of a cute figurine I have of a pig with wings.  Flying pigs is a current family mantra/joke and I could just see it in a small painting, framed, representing all the humor it involves. So I got ready to draw a masterpiece of cuteness.

Now, this is one mean looking pig...not acceptable at all.  (And it was the second one I attempted.)

It took four tries to get a decent looking (i.e. not mean) faced porker and about then I was losing interest in the entire thing.  I have a painting started I am itching to get to and was far more vested in seeing if I could manage a palette knife with my lefty than whether or not I could draw an imaginary swinelet.

So I gave it the ole'college try and decided to head on over to the paints.  My muse wants to play with Eola Park a bit more so stay tuned for another round of the fountain.  The pigs will have to fly another time: day #24 is done and over!

Burn, Baby, Burn & Day 3

Out with the old to make room for the new....

Canadian artist Robert Genn is also a great writer and inspiration.  When he recently discovered he had a terminal condition he began culling his work so that he could curate what was left behind.  While I am thankfully in good health, he nevertheless made me think about cluttered work spaces and cluttered minds. This prompted a clean out of closets, stacks, stashes and shelves.  His idea of a bonfire appealed to me so we planned one in conjunction with welcoming the new year.  My husband thinks I have hoarding tendencies so he was on board with set up and prep.

It was tricky slicing up canvas with my left hand but very cathartic as well.  Good riddance you nagging failures.

It was a very hot but beautiful fire.  We invited a couple over and as I fed the fire the other three played their musical instruments and we sang under a new moon as the new year rolled in.  I feel empowered and cleansed.  No regrets.

DAY THREE of 30 in 30 is "Rebellious Roses"  

  7" x 5" watercolor on paper; limited left-handed edition!

Enjoy your weekend....and yes, for me the weekends do count in the one-a-day-challenge.

click here to see work by other participants.

Honestly....

You probably are wondering what this is?  Well, I have a blog deadline and things just did not go right in the "office" this week.  So I decided to be brutally honest and post my failures.

It would not be fair of me or anyone else to lead you to believe that all goes smoothly all of the time in the business of creating art.  Somedays things click like magic and other days they don't.  But it is just not fun when you have an entire week of those "don't" days.  This collage represents a week's worth of work, attempts if you will.  One or two are salvagable, the others are not...and mind you, I have only let you peek at a small piece of each!

So, what did go right this week with paint?

Somedays you just chose a simple surface and a can of spray paint...at least I have something to show for the effort.  I hope that whatever you attempt this weekend is fun and a success!

Cindy