The Next Right Thing

When my husband and I were just a guy and a girl who kind of liked each other but weren't dating, we went running together a lot. These were our "dates." I remember one time when I was just about dying for the timer on his watch to go off, signaling the end of our run.
"How much longer do we have to go?" I wheezed.
"Ten minutes," Josh answered, looking at his watch.
Ten minutes! I couldn't go ten more minutes! Overwhelmed by the thought of such an insurmountable amount of time, I stopped. Sure I probably could have gone a little longer, but not ten whole minutes longer, so why bother? Thirty seconds later his alarm went off.
He had been attempting to motivate me to keep going by implying that we hadn't been running nearly as long as it had seemed. However, that's just not how my mind works. I'm not one of those that can look toward the summit as motivation to get up the mountain. I have to focus on this step, then the next, then the next, each in its own turn.

I've discovered this applies not just in running, but in other aspects of my life. Kitchen's a mess? Just do the dishes in the sink. Then just put away the clean dishes, clear off just this area of the counter, etc.  I find it especially applicable to art where every creation is, in some way shape or form, unchartered territory. This painting is too huge and I have a deadline? Don't focus on the deadline. Just paint in this moment, just work on this square inch. I have a show coming up and I'll never get enough work finished? Just focus on this step. Go to the art supply store, sit at your easel, paint, clean your brushes, block off your painting time for tomorrow, and so forth. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way and several other books on creativity calls this doing, "the next right thing." Last week when I wanted to cry constantly for the loss of my pet, "the next right thing" kept me moving through that initial pain to bittersweet acceptance and peace. From exercise, to art, to life and loss, taking one more right step will see you through. What is the next right thing that will take you one step further up your mountain?

My current "mountain." I feel like I'll never get this pine cone right!

Anyone have any overwhelming projects looming on the horizon? How do you handle them? Any tricks to share? I'd love to hear from you!

To see my last painting of a pine cone (which I also moaned over until the last coat, when I ended up loving it), click here.

Golden Girls rock

I have this sort of high-minded belief that you shouldn't buy art to fit a particular space or because the color-theme matches your couch. It seems like if you only obtain things you love, they all seem to work together somehow. However, I've amended this creed somewhat and have come to realize that sometimes the perfect piece for a room can make the entire room a work of art. 

This is my bathroom: 

Note the pink tile. It's not 50's bubblegum pink. It's more of an 80's mauve. The walls were previously a pinkish beige, which was fine with the previous owner's decor, but didn't really suit us.  When it came time to paint, let me tell you, we struggled to find a paint color that we liked with the mauve that didn't make it look like it belonged on the set of Golden Girls (click on the link to see a blogger who was totally inspired by the idea of modernizing the Golden Girls' style). Come to think of it, their couch was about the same color as these tiles. 

Then, I found these:

and inspiration struck. I would do a painting of river rocks for the bathroom, bringing in the pinkish color of the tile and paint the walls a beautiful river rock greenish grey! Perfect. So and painted the walls greenish grey, and I painted this:

And it sold before I even got to try it out in my own home! Not that I'm complaining at all. It sold to Energen, Birmingham's Natural Gas corporation, for their collection of Alabama artists.  I've painted a couple of smaller ones, too, but none have made it to their pre-conceived spot. Again, not complaining! So, I started a new one. I gave you a sneak preview of it here. Here it is now:

Stay tuned for more progress. 

The moral of this story? Inspiration can come from anywhere. Even pink tiles.

How about all of you out there in computer land. Ever been inspired by anything totally weird and random (a la doorknobs and faucets)? Tell me about it! Send me pictures and let me know if you would like me to share them on this blog. 

Everyday beauty

I wrote a couple of posts ago about doing little things to improve your state of mind and the beauty of your surroundings, so I thought I'd share a few pics of my most recent good-mood inducing project. Herb basket!

And having it right by the door means I (hopefully) won't forget to water it! 

Coming soon

Here's a sneak peak at my current work in progress:

Stay tuned for more. Same art time, same art channel. (Click on the link for fun, or for you super-youngsters that didn't get my reference). 

For more posts like this, check out:

Work in Progress Finished- Take 2

Work in Progress Day 1- Work Past the Ugly

...and the art of life

I live in an older house. Not so much older in the "charming details" sense, but older in the "this house has had several owners and every one of them has done things differently," sense. We're slowly (very slowly) but surely adding touches and changing things to make it our own. It's amazing how satisfying the tiniest changes can be! So since this blog is not only about "A Life of Art," but also, "The Art of Life," I've decided to share a few little glimpses into our home. 

Perhaps my favorite, shall we say quirk, about our house was the florescent office light on the bedroom ceiling. 

Forgive the awkwardness of this photo. I took this before we even bought the house and way before I had this blog. What you can't see in the photo is that there is another, regular light fixture about 10" away from this one. Kinda random, huh? So, we took the florescent light down and this is what we found-

                                                                       

Popcorn ceiling under that one strip of the ceiling. Wild! I'm sorry to admit we actually went to sleep staring at this view for the better part of a year thinking that removing the popcorn was going to be a HUGE deal. Luckily, we were wrong! All it took was a spray bottle of vinegar and warm water, some plastic sheeting to protect the floor, and a rag. Seriously! It's messy, but easy. I hear it's not always this easy to remove popcorn (sometimes called acoustic) ceilings, so we really lucked out. My father-in-law came to help us with some home improvement projects and at the end of a couple of days we had this:

A fresh paint job, new light fixture and a beautifully smooth ceiling. You can't even tell there was ever popcorn there. It makes me happy every time I go into our room. I swear I even have sweeter dreams. Next step- crown molding!

What have y'all crossed off your to-do list? Any tiny changes that have made a big difference in your state-of-mind?

Magical Mystery Painting Revealed!

At long last, as promised, here it is!

"First let me put on my face" by Erin Hardin
5"x7"
oil on birch

Like I said, pretty different from anything you've seen from me, but not ENTIRELY different from anything I've ever done. A couple of years ago I did this:

"Emotional Skin"
by Erin Hardin

for "Heads Up, Alabama!". "Heads Up, Alabama!" was a public arts display sponsored by the Alabama Psychological Association to raise awareness of mental health care. I was one of 30 artists in Alabama chosen to decorate one of these huge fiberglass heads. Here's an article in the Birmingham News about the program (with another photo of Headley, as I affectionately called my Head). Here's another photo so you can see the size.

The inspiration for my design, "Emotional Skin" came from one of my professors in grad school. I've probably mentioned before that I have a M.Ed. in counseling from the University of Montevallo. During my internship one of my professors described a person with borderline personality disorder as "having no emotional skin," because he or she feels all emotions more strongly than normal and they all hurt. That image stuck with me and so for this project I thought of how a person might patch their emotional skin in healthy ways. I loved that project, so I thought I'd experiment with a few paintings based on that concept. However, I ran into a few challenges with the painting. All good learning experiences, but challenges nonetheless. I'll go into what those challenges were and what I learned from them in my next post. For the time being, here are a few more close-up images of Headley for your perusal (that's kinda a fun word). 

One clear, bright sky, eye

And on stormy sky eye

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