30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 27

​"Earth Mother Redux" - mixed media on reclaimed wood.  6" x 22".

You're free, to do
Whatever pleases you,
Exploring things you'd never dare
                From "Giants in the Sky", Into the Woods

I'm here in the frosty North Carolina woods today, still journeying but now wearing layers (and socks) instead of shorts and sandals.

There are bold adventurers coming to the gallery today to explore the Earth Mother archetype with me.  This is one of my new demo pieces for the workshop, full of good mojo and love.  I've got a stack of reclaimed wood and a bucket of paint that says we're going to have big fun today!

Still reading along in Art & Fear.  It is weighty, this little book, and the reassurance, validation, encouragement and sense of rightness I get from it advances with each chapter.  The section called Canon brought an almost spiritual reverence to the routine practices of artists (and musicians and writers and dancers...).  The repetitive ways we begin, knowing at least we can begin with something we know well and have done over and over again, boring to the art viewer but essential to the art maker - almost ritualistic.   "Any device that carries the first brushstroke to the next blank canvas has practical, tangible value."      So many of my pieces begin with markings on whatever the support is.  Markings which may disappear forever underneath the paint, but which allow me to begin.

​What is it you do to get started in your creating?  I'd love to hear. :)