Friday, July 6, 2012

Little Bird, Wild 'n Reckless Sherbet and Stretching

Little Bird
encaustic and paper on birch 5x5
We often take on challenges because they are good for us.  They fuel the creative spirit.  Challenges ARE good for us.  They make us stretch.  We all know how good stretching is for our bodies.  It keeps us limber.  It keeps our muscles lengthened and pliable.  When our muscles are stretched, we can react faster, move freer and leap over tall buildings with ease.  So, how about the mental stretch?  Or the creative stretch?  These are equally as important.  It is far too easy to let ourselves fall into a pattern with our creativity, with our art.  I know this happens to me in the kitchen all the time - right now especially.  In fact, I move through my repertoire of recipes for dinner over and over.  It gets to the point that I dread making dinner because I've narrowed myself down to just a few things I make.  Gee.. chicken tonight....again.  I have countless recipe books for inspiration.  However, there is something that winds me down to the point that seeking inspiration even from opening a cookbook is too much work.  And, then... we eat the same things over and over without any flare or fashion.  It can become quite a sad culinary state around my house.
So, what gets us out of these ruts?  Challenges are a great place to start to get us to stretch a little.  The key to a good challenge is commitment.  Its an agreement with yourself that you WILL follow through and stretch a little and then perhaps a lot.  I've been playing along with Summer of Color2 and its luscious ice cream inspirations.  Last week was Strawberry Lemonade which totally tipped me over.  I could not get my head wrapped around pink and yellow.  I fell off the wagon and didn't participate.  I did have someone point out that pink and yellow are skin colors - that didn't even help.  This week - Wild 'n Reckless Sherbet - blue, pink and apple green.... really not my colors... at all.  This is where the commitment part comes in... I totally pulled a muscle on pink and yellow and it caused me to sit out and be sidelined for a week.  Injuries suck.  I made a run at it and ended up on the bench again.  This week... limping all the way, I decided that I had made a commitment to me that I would participate no matter how difficult... (the stretch).   I pulled all colors off my palette with the exception of pink, blue and green.  I was stumped and blocked myself into a corner and just sat there like a lump.  It was far too easy to just give in and sit out another week.  Then she came to my window- little bird.  There are no birds in the world that are this color - but no matter, its the stretch that counts and the commitment to the challenge of stretching.
As for the kitchen dilemma...  I recently took a cooking class and today I'm sitting down with a cup of tea, Cooking Light Magazine and pencil and paper to make my shopping list.  Happy Paint Party Friday everyone!! 

30 comments:

  1. Your posts always have me nodding my head in agreement as I can see myself in them every time. My meal times sound just like yours - I have any number of vegan recipe books just so that I wouldn't fall into a rut but yet I still make the same few things all the time and not always the healthiest things either, simply because they are the easiest!
    I agree also on the yellow and pink. However, because I'm doing animal doodles every week I decided to just go ahead and use the colour combination anyway (on a giant tortoise which has never been and never will be pink and yellow!) I chose a bird for this week's theme too - parrots can be blue if not blue, green and pinky purple all at one time!!

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  2. Excellent piece!!!! You and Pointy have me itching to try again.

    xoxoxo

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  3. such a wonderful bird, i love the colors as well as the encaustic.

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  4. LOVE it! Those notes showing through strategically on his musical throat is just excellent!

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  5. Loving your gorgeous bird and its pretty background. Happy PPF, Annette x

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  6. I agree with everything you wrote! Your bird is outstanding!!! How beautiful that she came at just the right time. Your Muse turned into a bird! Love it. Happy PPF! :-) ~ Rhonda

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  7. I too agree with your words of wisdom. I'm sure you will follow through with something new and different for dinner as you did with your beautiful bird. Love the colors and commitment is indeed the key. Today I am cooking something out of Rick Bayless's cookbook, I think I am. tee hee. Have a wonderful weekend. Take care.

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  8. Me gusta mucho. Es precioso.

    Un abrazo

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  9. So glad you are back in the game! I love your layers and colors and well, all of it!!!

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  10. Love this bird ~ awesome creation and sol well done with wonderful textures ~~ thanks ^_^ (A Creative Harbor)

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  11. Gorgeous colors and textures!
    The sheet music background is the perfect complement for this bird portrait!
    Always enjoy seeing your encaustics.
    ♥♥♥
    Happy PPF!!
    Mary
    Mixed-Media Map Art

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  12. Beautiful..so gorgeous and poetic...truly blissful!
    Victoria

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  13. Pretty bird, I would never have guessed they didn't come in that colour!

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  14. I always figure that if there's something I really don't want to do, that means I need to do it.

    At least with my art. Stuff like cleaning the house doesn't count...

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  15. I love your little bird so much!! I think it's fabulous you pushed through, the result is so sweet. Congrats on your cooking course as well!

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  16. This was a wonderful piece. I can so relate to the cooking part. I cook the same thing over and over and then find that we begin to eat out more and more. Maybe a cooking class would help.
    I love your bird. I am so glad that you stretched your muscles so that we could all enjoy the fruits of your labor. Have a great weekend.

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  17. I can well relate to the cooking dilemma, I can well understand the process of always making the same old boring things...oh well....sometimes we get little inspirations and pushes towards change! I love your bird, full of color and creativity, a beautiful piece!

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  18. I agree with you about the challenges and commitment. :) Birdie looks fantastic!

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  19. This is such an interesting post!! We are all so amazingly different!! I love it! Your bird is adorable!! I agree we need to stretch, I have trouble with that too!! The menu does get boring..yet always yummy, in every aspect. We do what we love best I'm guessing...or what we have at our finger tips!! Great post thanks for sharing this authentic post!!

    Hugs Giggles

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  20. Been there, done that sitting out. ;)
    Cute bird, so lively. Lovely background too.

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  21. Ouch. . . I just entered a competition wherein we were sent paint chips and we had to use those colors and one neutral. It was a double challenge for me (the only color I hate and have no fabric/yarn is PINK). Guess what the 6 colors of paint chips I was sent .. .. .. Yep Pink. . . . I made crochet beach houses on a sunset sea. . . Just Do It! Yes, there are birds that color, my friend on FB posted a picture of one. I love your bird and your dilemma. . . we all have them. Thank you for sharing. Blessings, Janet PPF

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  22. Loved your blog post - I can relate to it so well!
    Such an adorable little bird - I love the colours of it and I especially love the way the background music shows through in places. Beautifully painted and a perfect success for this weeks challenge - give yourself a pat on the back!!!

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  23. I saw this cute birdie on Flickr - it's gorgeous!

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  24. This is wonderful...its so sweet ...yeah...i agree...its given me a great push along to get some art done...xxx

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  25. My love for birdies grows even bigger when I see such beautiful work of art...love all the creamy textures :)

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  26. Such beautiful bird! Love the musical sheet background too. Totally agree with you on challenges, sometimes it makes us a little bit braver :).

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  27. I almost pulled a brain muscle with pink lemonade and another one this week... it is tough to get in and do it... but your work does look quite effortless here... I am determined to get to the end of the challenges and then I am going to joyously appreciate my normal palette... it has been a great exercise though... xx

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  28. Your encaustic work is just amazing! I love this little bird and your post. My little craft studio is all put together now, but I just can't bring myself to stay inside when this weather is so nice! So, I continue to work on my little thread crochet pieces sitting outside. I love PPF and miss participating...I need to get back soon!

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  29. Good on you that you didn't give up! the bird looks great!

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