Painting days are just the best.
Intense, losing yourself, putting your whole heart and soul into it.
Emotions, feelings, ideas, thoughts.
Pouring out of fingertips...
Paint drips down the painting door.
I have easels - but I opt for my door.
I stand, I sit, I dab.
Drip drip dripping paint.
And somehow, it makes it onto the floor too.
Cakes stop by for tea...
Ballerinas fly through the air...
Feathers adorn hats...
And before you know it, you need an afternoon break.
The thing about painting (or making of any type), and doing it as your full time job - for me at least - is that you need to find a balance.
Because after you paint a detailed painting, you are left feeling drained.
Not in a bad way.
But, more in an out of body sort of way.
And you have to refuel.
Painting for hours and hours is intense.
It's another world.
No matter what you are painting.
Emotions pour out.
Energy pours out.
You have to go out and water plants, or play dress up.
Tidy your room.
Loosen up.
Go for walk.
Just something else.
For a little while.
For me the summer has been filled with a lot of sorting through 17 years of stuff from my other house.
17 years, wow.
Recently I came across these vintage shoes I bought in 1992, at an antique store.
I am not sure why they had these shoes, as they didn't carry much clothing at all.
I was a junior in high-school.
I wore them out to the discotheques all the time.
They cost 25 cents.
Yes.
25 cents.
A quarter.
They weigh a ton.
Solid wood stumps.
I put them on this week.
It takes a little while to get used to each crazy heavy step.
They are so sturdy, and made so well it's incredible.
Saying they are heavy is an understatement.
No wonder my legs were so toned back in the day.
Dancing in chunks of wood.
Yes, that's the ticket.
I should just leave them on all day, really.
I got to wondering what other things I have purchased for 25cents in my life.
Cheap books.
Art even.
And, some little Bambi's too.
Souvenirs of Oklahoma, they say.
Lovee also got me a huge plastic yellow heart love ring once.
When we were first dating.
It was 25 cents too.
I love that plastic ring.
And, I also love people who keep a few things as memorabilia.
Do you?
I love seeing people's tchotchkes and trinkets.
They tell stories.
They are interesting bits and bobs of life.
Even just a little tin, filled with tiny things, is sweet.
A little fortune from your first date dinner with your beloved.
A flower he or she gave you after a stroll on the night you fell in love.
Sappy one :)
I have one of those though, in my diary, from Lovee.
Cheesewhiz, but awesome too.
I love that I have it.
Would it matter if I didn't?
Not really, but having it sparks my heart.
A plastic ring.
The first Valentine you ever bought for yourself.
Yes.
See.
A perfect way to get away from the paint, refuel, and then go back all excited and refreshed to create again.
Little distractions.
Love them.
What is your favorite distraction?
Some little thing you do at break, that you look forward to?
I love busy packaging order days, where I tidy up my office first.
Then put on some music or a show in the background.
Then I just work away, with the fan swirling.
I also love hearing the mail truck pull up.
Matty running out to bark.
Miles runs out behind him, but picks up a huge log to run with.
I put on my long linen painting blouse over my clothes, and my big straw hat.
I can't go outside without my hat.
It's a perfect break.
Checking the mail.
I love mail.
Okay, enough babble from me.
Back to work I go.
See you soooon!
Love, V
ps:
Random tale about a song.
Last week I was mowing weeds, big fat huge juicy 3 ft. tall spiney weeds.
When, I started sneezing like crazy, eyes swollen.
You know, a typical allergy attack, if you get those?
I don't get them often at all, but they are the reason I was given 4 allergy shots twice a week my whole childhood to 19 years old (fun), so I wouldn't suffer my whole life.
Both parental units have mass allergies.
Great for me :)
The shots really worked.
Yay!
But every so often, ripe huge weeds will get me if I work in them, you?
Anyhow, point is.
I had to go shower, take an allergy pill, and crawl into bed to sneeze all day.
Finally in the evening, when the sneezing let up, I started to doze off.
I was exhausted and sort of out of it, from a whole day of allergy head.
I put a movie on.
That is when I heard a tune I have been listening to for years on record, actually coming out of the television.
I was floored.
One of my favorite records I picked up who knows where or when?
I couldn't believe I was hearing "that" song.
It tugged at my heart strings.
I shared it in this video I made a couple years ago.
The movie was The Deep Blue Sea.
The music is, Barber Violin Concerto, Op. 14
(2nd movement)
It's a beautiful piece of music.
The movie was terribly sad, in case you were wondering.
Have you seen it?
