Day 37

Lesson 1: "If you don't like it," one of the online teachers said, "It's just not done yet."

       Last night, because most of my art supplies are packed for moving (again!) I took a  few things into my bedroom and put them on a small table:

       a glue stick
       some shipping tags I'd painted for practice months ago
       a couple of Posca pens
       a few gel prints on tissue paper

       I tore strips and pieces of gel prints and collaged them onto one tag, focusing on just one thing at a time, slowly, not thinking ahead of myself, not over-thinking it at all, just relaxing into it like a bedtime story.

       When I woke at 3:15 I saw the tags in the bathroom where I'd left them to dry, and if I were a puppy I'd have wagged my tail!  I liked them. A lot. Yes, quite a lot! 

       (As opposed to Easter Sunday when the few pages I made wound up in the trash.)

       I think I'm onto something--another lesson to take with me when I move:

Lesson 2: Don't have an overwhelming array of art supplies out at one time.


       Pam gave me a beautiful handmade journal for Christmas. I've been saving it all these months the way people save their best silver for special occasions instead of enjoying it on a random Tuesday. I wanted to save this journal until I felt skilled enough to improve upon (or at least not ruin) the beauty of the blank pages.

       When we spotted it in a gallery in Comfort months ago, we were both drawn to it.  Made by an artist in Helotes, it has a soft leather wrap-around cover and creamy pages. It has that soft, supple, sweet feel in your hands that you can't resist touching, and when you do, you feel it wants to go home with you so you can keep touching it.

       As I wandered around the gallery, I talked myself out of buying another journal for Pete's sake, telling myself the obvious: You already have plenty of blank books and you haven't even finished a single one yet!

       As we were leaving, I was so happy to see that Pam bought it for herself!  (Or so I thought--until she gave it to me later, for Christmas!)

Lesson 3: If not now, when?  If ever there were a time to get out the best silver and crystal and china, the proverbial special occasion treasures we own, this is it!