30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day One

"Hula Girl" - mixed media on aquabord, 5" x 7"

It is so exciting to be participating in the international "30 Paintings in 30 Days" event again this year!  For this month, I've selected "uncertainty" as my theme (mostly because I couldn't decide which of a million themes I liked best!)   So I will hit the ground running with this primitive portrait of a hula dancer.

You may be wondering how uncertainty and hula are connected.  Let me see if I can satisfy your highly justified curiosity.

Recently, my own household has experienced some extraordinary changes - a move, a son off to see the world, a father coming home to roost, to name a few.  And during all this transition (and a bit of chaos) it became incredibly clear to me how impossible it is to predict what tomorrow will bring.  The future is uncertain.  Completely uncertain.

Now sometimes this uncertainty is stressful.   In fact, usually I spend one hundred percent of my energy trying to wrangle, corral and control the future in some way to avoid problematic outcomes.  A part of me firmly believed a commitment to worrying and planning to avoid problems would, in some superstitious way, protect me from harm.  Like an apple a day, a good dose of worrying was my preventative medicine.  But during all this change, something really wonderful happened.  I began to see marvelous events and opportunities unfolding amidst the chaos.  Do you have any idea what this means?????  Yes!  It means the future can (and does!) surprise us with AMAZING AWESOMENESS in addition to a little bit of crapola.  

Instead of pre-worrying, I began pre-dreaming.  Imagining wonderful things around every corner.  And guess what?  A lot of wonderful things have been around the corner!  I am firmly convinced, at this moment, that one of those wonderful things waiting for me so close that I can almost taste it is HULA DANCING.  Because why not?  So I will be heading out to find a grass skirt now, just in case.

This piece is available, unframed.  Inquiries: imajenation@gmail.com

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