Last week, my friend Barbara Martin invited me to join an art challenge. Why would a writer do an art challenge? Because sometimes when you’re stuck in one creative mode, it’s useful to switch into another creative mode for a while.
The challenge was to make three pieces, in any media at all (it could be as simple as a doodle on a napkin). Each piece could only use the colors purple, vermillion, and light blue (plus black and white); and each piece had to have one of the words energy, passion, or life. The pieces don’t need to be good, or anything; they just need to be done, with the specified colors and words.
The challenge came along at the perfect time. I’d just finished rearranging the furniture in my bedroom, and had set up a dedicated table for arts and crafts and creative journaling and stuff like that. It was a great way to break in my new space and get comfortable there.
I made two pieces. Here they are!
The first is a small papercraft box, painted in acrylics. It’s purple with vermillion trim, and the inside is light blue. The words are tucked inside the box.
The second is an accordion-fold book, with the panels cut out to create images, painted with watercolors. It’s kind of hard to see here, but the first page has grass, the second page has the bright vermillion LIFE, the third page has a purple tree, and the final page is light blue sky. Here it is unfolded:
Accordion, unfolded.
So! It was a great way to settle in to my new space; it was fun; and I learned a lot.
Lessons Learned!
1. Use sturdier paper to make boxes. Standard copy paper does not hold up so well, and slathering acrylic paint on it doesn’t improve things.
2. I like watercolors more than acrylics.
3. Painting things in 3-d like this is a pain in the ass.
4. If your lovely cut-out pages get warped when you paint them, a few minutes with an iron straightens them out nicely.
5. If you iron on your cutting mat, it gets badly warped. Ooops.
6. Despite “doodles on napkins” being explicitly allowed by the rules — encouraged, even — I just couldn’t loosen up enough to do that. I only felt comfortable taking on more ambitious projects that I thought were cooler. That’s how I ended up with only two completed pieces, instead of the mandated three.
That last one is a biggie. Where else in my life is this pattern of “it has to be awesome or don’t do it” playing out? (besides, well, everywhere?) Where is this pattern good? Where does it get in the way? How might I work on shifting this pattern to be more felicitous? That’s something I’ll be exploring with shiva nata.
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