painting

Are you learning anything new this autumn? Or returning to a practice? Maybe with kids back in school you have an extra moment to do something that is just for you.
I'm doing all three. And reading books like crazy. Autumn makes me want to be a better person with regular schedules and healthy habits and growth. Even more than New Year's. I'm nerdy like that. But Back to school isn't always new denim and cute lunchboxes.

Back to school can be terrifying, like when my family moved to a new town just before 7th grade. awkward.
And back to school can be so inspiring, like the first semester I took a course on Sustainable Living and made awesome friends while planting garlic.
Back to school is just a moment that keeps returning, even when we aren't in school. We can choose what to do with that energy each autumn.

So Franklin had three days of preschool this week and I've been painting in my studio again for an upcoming group art show. About superheroes.

I decided to just do a regular old painting. No fabric on boards, no stitched portraits, no sewing a doll or a quilt for a gallery. No gimmicks. Just paint on wood. I was so nervous about my idea that I didn't even tell Steeb (who is organizing the whole show and my best friend even!) what I was working on until I had it started.

But you know, it's fall and back to school and return to learning, so I went for it. I realized that even as A Creative, I have huge creative blocks. I have sewn myself into a craft corner and a profitability mindset. I have a good time in my little corner mind you, but still...

Sometimes I need to just push paint around on wood and make something that is personal and a little vulnerable and maybe even awesome.

Come to Make.Shift gallery October 4 to see the rest of this painting. And another one with a chicken. Because I also remembered I really like painting chickens. And you will see how this boy with binoculars and a chicken have anything to do with comic book superheroes.