These are sweet days amidst the blink of North Florida spring. For me, it’s been a weekend of yoga and thrift shopping, cooking and house cleaning, connecting with friends and painting–in other words, taking a sort of impeccable care of myself, which is easier at some times than others.
Today, after a week of this painting not coming easily, my friend Katie dropped by for a visit. “Any new paintings?” she asked innocently. I hedged. “There’s something, but it’s really weird. I know it’s bad, but I don’t know what to do.”
“Let me see,” Katie said, and I let her, because she’s a painter too, and has a great sense of design, and a knack for seeing what’s good in my work and helping me bring it along–all without judgement.
“Oh,” she laughed, “it is weird.”
“I wanna abandon it,” I whined. She looked awhile and said, “You know, I really like the plant shapes. They remind me of succulents. Why don’t you just go crazy on it with some more shapes and see what happens?”
So I did, and yippee, it’s done.
I know this because now when I look at it, it brings me delight, not distress.
Thank you, Katie!
