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!!