Joy, from the Mind to the Canvas

As it turns out, I am going to post some art tonight. This painting aligns with my mood.

This lady never got to the state of completion that other paintings reach. I decided I want her this way. I painted her in one sitting with a nice wide brush. I knocked her out in about two hours while my mind wondered over happy things. She was painted on the ceramic tile floor of my living room with afternoon sun streaming in through lots of big windows. The mood in the room was joyful.

I am compelled to paint faces, especially the faces of women. I find this annoying because they feel kind of useless, especially this one. I really like her—which fulfills half the purpose of the painting, but the other half is for other people to as well. Who wants to look at a random face, especially when the artist has a vast collection of them? Evidently, someone like me—someone that likes to imagine the background story to the character that stares unblinkingly back. I don’t feel like this lady has much of a background story, and in her case that is okay. Not having anything noteworthy makes her a joyful being. There are no creases of worry in her forehead, no edge of doubt in those eyes, no past traumas cast a shadow over her. She is an image of my happiness in that moment.

On another note, my kids and I did a bit of crafting together. Here is a shot of our work.

From left to right: the concept, the preschooler interpretation, and the toddler interpretation.

I could probably come up with a good background story for the toddler’s piece of art, but it would be a lie. She just kept saying “More paper!” The truth in it is that their personalities shine through brilliantly.

And now I’ve got a new project to get started on. Goodnight all.