That Was A Very Long Hiatus

It's been awhile.  I wish I could say that I really missed the blog, but I did not.  

During my break, I didn't not completely shy away from creative activities, but I did take a break from the ones that stretch me the most and therefore take more energy.  As a result, I have not been drawing or painting.  

Since the start of 2023, there's been a little voice inside that has been getting a little louder over time that it's time to get back to it.  Recently, I signed up for a class at the Minnesota Center for Books and one at Wet Paint.   I signed up for a two session class at Wet Paint with Monica Fogg and was very disappointed that it was cancelled.  Still, the two classes that I did take helped me feel like I was bringing my creativity muscle back online so that it's ready to work and grow.      

One of the Wet Paint classes was both about art, specifically mark making, and meditation.  In one exercise, we were experimenting with getting in touch with our breath and making marks during that time.  I found myself getting frustrated that my breath seems like such a soft thing in comparision to making lines and other marks.  I kind of wanted to make bold marks, but that's not how my breath "felt".  

I found myself returning to think about this over the next few days and a tiny "aha" moment appeared.  One of the reasons to get back to drawing and painting is to have these types of things to ponder.  It just makes life more interesting to think about why does my breath seem incongruent with bold, strong mark making.  

This weekend, I painted several times.  That was a warm up for today, since today was the start of a short session learning to paint from Kat Corrigan again.  I have been really looking forward to today.  It seems like a really good group of people, Kat creates a very welcoming environment, and it's just good to back at it again.

I feel really rusty, but I am also ready to practice, again.  

Here is the first painting after the long hiatus.  It actually felt pretty good.  The next two did not flow at all. 

Here's the one from class today.  I like some of the colors that I mixed.  I should have stopped earlier, since I think it was in a better place than when I finished.  

It's been nice to get into the flow of this type of focus again.  It goes back to feeling like I've taken a vacation to the other side of my brain.  I also completely lost track of time.  At the same time on the way home, I was thinking about the art-making and mediatation class at Wet Paint and I realized that I spent the entire time in class today in my head.  Another thing to think about or try is being fully present when I'm painting in terms of things like occasionally checking in with my breath, being aware of my feet on the floor, and things like that.