Monday, December 21, 2009

pain? what pain?


perhaps it's because of a recent art class, but I'm looking at the monster bruise on the heel my hand and feeling awe at its beauty.
The learnings from my art class brought into my awareness the multitude of colors that are present in skin tones.
When Tessa Nunn - my oil-on-canvas teacher - described the process of painting skin it involved observing a spot of skin (with all the shadow, lighting, reflection and so forth that favors the dermis to reveal its true tones) finding or mixing that that color within my palette and then painting that one point on the canvas figure with that color.
It's the culmination of those spots that make the skin tone - no blending required. i guess that's why the Crayola coloring of my youth looked so odd. no one has an exclusively peach colored flesh tone. Duh. so obvious now.
Last night I went skating with my friend Steffi D and whoopsy daisy I 'banana peeled' right onto my left hand with a heavy thud. I fell hard, and frankly I think I'm quite fortunate that I didn't break anything.
After the endorphins wore off and the cold of the evening set in, my palm began to throb. A hot pulse surged behind chilled skin. fast forward to today, and it really just looks more traumatic that it is. mostly it's just a gorgeous bruise with amazing colors - not unlike a romantic sunset or the snow glow @ dawn.
Looking down at my hand - focusing in on a point finding new shades and hues and splotches - I feel inspired to paint this beautiful boo-boo before it quickly heals away.
Who knew a bruise could be so entertaining?

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Pablo, my soul twin


Pablo Picasso once said "I am always doing things I can't do, that's how I get to do them. " I think that's an accurate reflection of the way I operate...because for someone who feels firmly wedged into the humdrum 9-5 bump & grind money trap I sure do a lot of fun & exciting things. Wouldn't it just be great though if my mind didn't feel that way, I still did tonnes of fun & exciting things, just more frequently?
The other day, when I was fretting about finances I decided that every time my head went into that space I would automatically stop that thought right there and say to myself: how can I bring more abundance into my life? And then wait for an answer. The first time I did it I happened to be fussing in my head while filling up my gas tank. After my mini-mind-intervention silence followed and then it dawned on me: buy a lotto ticket. It just so happens that I won $10 from that ticket.
Is buying lotto tickets my ticket to the gravy train? I believe it is one of the infinite tickets to the life of my dreams. More importantly though, is noticing that when i stop worrying and start creating (or being open to ideas and taking action upon these ideas) that abundance (often in the form of money) flows into my life. Even small increments count, in my opinion.
That works perfectly with my plan of doing all those things I can't.