Bad art needs practice too!

Quick art exercise of the day - learning to use this long tipped brush to make one stroke leaves / petals. Didn’t go so well. But who is judging!

This beach could use a clean up

Lately, some of my “bad art” has actually turned out good - I immediately took to sharing those pieces with everyone and the tiny ego lapped up all the compliments and promptly forgot the point of this exercise. More so, ego being ego - decided to take the leap and follow expert painters time lapsed videos instead of the step by step tutorials for beginners I had been following so far. Well the proof is in the pudding or in this case proof is in this wreck of a beach that was supposed to be a serene sepia scape - instead of green sky, muddy sand and what looks like a Bermuda Triangle beneath the sun in the ocean. I don’t see sepia anywhere and I am definitely finding no serenity looking at this picture - Infact it’s giving me anxiety that I need to clean it up somehow! 

I am feeling that weight in real life too with way too many big changes in the last week with kids moving to Lansing (more on that later), in-person work meetings, and home maintenance projects I took on. I have to remember that I am a beginner - a beginner grief practitioner. I need to stay with my step by step guided pace. As much as I want to be “back into swing of things” …. I’m just not there yet. If I push myself too hard, I’ll just have a mess to cleanup. 

I am going to keep this dirty beach picture on my table to remind me to slow down. It’s a process. Can’t skip steps. Put one foot in front of the other. Breathe. 

Ambition = Anxiety

Well….here we are. I fell into the trap of taking on a complicated idea instead of the low stakes “bad art” I was making following along you-tube tutorials. I wanted to make this for Diya’s new apartment- but the project grew in size and complexity and became agonizing and stressful. Nothing seems to be working in it despite spending several hours on it. Totally defeats the purpose of why I started doing art. 

Tomorrow- back to bad art - no objective, no expectations. Bad art = quiet heart. 

Art (& squirt) therapy for all

Loved sharing all the art supplies I have been accumulating in the past few weeks, with the kids. They immediately jumped in - and for a moment everything felt alright. 

Aadi made some abstract art. Diya - well in Diya style - has about five different projects going in parallel - everything from die cutting and embossing paper to large format mixed media artwork inspired by Monet’s waterlillies. Oh and did I mention the glass dip pens that “charge” ink by turning counterclockwise in the ink-pot - this makes the spiral groves on the head pull ink from the well - that then slowly releases as you write. Mind bending technology from the medieval times. None of us could resist it! Calligraphy samples to follow. 

P.S.: later, Aadi finished his art work. Diya still has all of them going in parallel, then "took a break" from art and decided to squirt everyone with a water gun instead. that broke the assembly and sent everyone scurrying for cover - human and pets alike. We love you so so much, Diya (Nannnu) Ganguli.

Who let the rabbit out?

Some days need double-fisting

Aadi’s accident is sinking in. Even though he is ok. I am not. Had to hide in the room most of the day to stop myself from safe depositing the kids into a Swiss bank and then crawling into a hole myself. Bad art to rescue the poor heart. Along with some AI generated Indian ragas as accompanying music - hey who am I to judge. 

Hope