February 11

I love this rainy cold day, playing with watercolor, a gift class from Laura Horn in Australia.  

After making hundreds of circles (which I'll continue doing because I love doing them), I'm finally trying what some of the teachers advise--to use my journal of watercolor paper to make big messy shapes and drips.  I wanted to avoid this part, as I do not like messy.  Once I've "messed up" a page, I feel like I've ruined my journal.  AS IF it's for a big art show or something! 

And so today, I made pages and pages of messy, some of which are--while not art--vivid and alive and promising.  Tomorrow, she'll teach us the next step--adding marks without using brushes.  

I also love the work of Jane Davies; it intrigues me.  She sometimes lets her chickens walk across the page to make marks and often plays the ukulele as background music.  I love watching her paint. She often has what looks to me like a completed piece and she puts a big swath of black over the top, me thinking ,"Ugh Oh, you're messing it up. Stop."  But then it gets--surprisingly--even better.

Luci is down for the night and I'm going to watch an episode of All Creatures Great and Small and call it a day.  A day is a very good thing.  I'll take all I can get!