Art Friday: The canvas is finished…

This canvas has taken on such a deep meaning to me. I didn’t know where it was going when I started- it originally looked a bit cloud-scape and I could see it leaning towards an Emily Jeffords-inspired direction. It ended up leaning far more celestial. I remember painting the starscape on a particularly troubling night, feeling angry and bereft and a bit at a loss for words, and how calming it was to bring that vision of stars to life. And then the woman arrived, a total surprise, as I tend to lean more towards abstract collage. The shape of her and the way she was hugging her arms to herself suggested loss and fragility; the snippet of verse came quite soon on her heels. When I finished over-painting the drawing, it still didn’t feel finished to me- in need of more texture. I borrowed from my Poobah Jocelyn an embellishment technique with hand-stitching- and then- it was just right. I’m so pleased with the final product. It really took me out of my comfort zone in many ways, but I kept following the thread of the story, and am better for it. As odd as this sounds, I needed to prove to myself I could commit to the long haul of doing it for the process and showing up. Start to finish, this canvas took me six months.

Speaking of doing it for the process, Emily has started a wonderful new Instagram account that I have absolutely been loving, called none other than… @DoItForTheProcess. Go follow! It is full of lovely inspiration.