Maxim is Back! Plus More...

Picking up her daughter from playschool was the sweetest moment of Rose’s day.

Maxim:

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.

***

I've been indulging in a rather longer break from art making, blogging about art making, reading about art making, visiting other artists' blogs than originally anticipated.  I know there's a popular push to make art every day but sometimes it's good to not make art.  Sometimes it's the art itself that stops; the inspiration or fire fades; the confidence wanes; the questions creep in; the desire dwindles.  I've come to identify this phenomenon as a fallow period in my process of art making; a time for the creative soil to rest and replenish itself.  And it is also a time to not FREAK OUT because of the fear that I've lost the ability to make art and will never be able to do so again.  Well, there's all kinds of ways to make art and all kinds of art forms so the likelihood of "never making art again" is pretty small.

But really, in this instance, I've just been enjoying NOT making art.  However, the old itch to make scratches on surfaces has been gradually creeping back into my consciousness. 

I recently felt the need to set up a little creative corner in my bedroom (yes, I'm still visiting the old homestead  in North Vancouver,
probably till early March, which I'm blogging about on Décolleté Glimpses).

Using an old card table for my work surface and a pedestal that was once used as an ashtray stand to hold my brushes and small things not in use, I`ve created a mini-studio.

So, okay, I'm not going to be making great Art...I'm going to be Messing About.

And that's okay.

We have to give ourselves permission and freedom to play,

 to goof around,

 to explore and make a mess...

as artists,

and in our daily lives.

I'm not using any fancy supplies:

• An old magazine that I picked up for free on my last visit and saved because I liked its matte paper.
• Acrylic paints from the dollar store: off white, sienna, black, moss green, gold.
• Cheap brushes.
• A large bottle of matte medium (for glue and as a protective layer).
• A few magazines to possibly use for collaging.
• Paper towels (post-clean up collage fodder)

I prepped several pages in the magazine by smearing them with paint and medium, separating them with wax paper and standing the book up on end to let the paint dry.  I've started making a few "paintings" in it, which I'll be posting here over the next several weeks. 

I warn you, though,

 it's not going to be pretty!

***