morning musings

mornings are so fabulous for me. an early bed time is necessary in order to make the mornings possible. this morning arose at 6:11. i took this photo at 6:15:

the digital camera (or any camera, really) never does justice to what my eyes see. the room was almost completely shades of grey. i have been thinking about grey after being introduced to the art of james howell who i met last week at the opening of the Works on Paper: The Natalie and Irving Forman Collection. His ideas about art all concerned with where light meets dark.

my big self-appointed assignment for the day was to paint--bright, shiny red--a mail holder i found at a yard sale this summer. again, pictures don't do it justice, but here is the project one-paint coat in (blogging=drying time):

i like how the newspaper underneath says "eats"...maybe it was the subliminal message that made me pause mid-paint to make a lovely vanilla latte. as i was cleaning up the paintbrush, letting the red paint run down the drain under the water's steady stream, i was reminded of the beginnings of art for me. it was doing the same thing--cleaning a brush from a brightly colored paint--in a high school art class (where, of course, ones introduction to Art is via the only justifiable medium. paint.) which quickly reminded me that high school wasn't my first experience with cleaning paintbrushes in a sink covered in years worth of paint splashes, but rather in 4th grade when i attended college for kids at the University of Wisconin-Richland. that program, to a scared 10-year old ilana, was hugely influential to me. i don't remember who the instructor was, but our project was to make a painting of a plant. (this painting still hangs in my parents house; it has been told to me that it is my best work of art) i vividly recall the mind boggling concept that when we looked at something it wasn't always the colors we would expect. during this time, i remember i felt so excited to see, to transfer what i saw, and to use colors. i felt amazing freedom to be creative now that i didn't need to make the plant green.

that just trigged many thoughts about vision and visualizing and reminded me that those are the roots of my love and interest in art. i feel like i have to defend my stance the older i get, the more educated i become, and longer i am around art--to myself mostly.

back to painting--second coat as the morning light is now day light.