Feeling the weather lately
but I painted anyway
The weather has been pretty brutal out here in the midwest with the “ring of fire” sitting right over the top of us for days on end. I haven’t had much painting mojo this week.
There are days when painting feels like play & I feel like a kid with a new box of crayons. It’s beyond fun, magical, eXciTiNg, and my creative brain is on fire. I can’t paint fast enough to keep up with all the character images popping into my mind’s eye, who are screaming “paint me next!”. “NO, MEeeee!!!” Sometimes they get loud inside their little cages in my mind. The loudest one doesn’t always win. Sometimes it’s the quiet one sitting over in the corner I notice, but I digress.
Other days painting is a painful drag. All the characters in my head are sleeping or have better things to do rather than sit around begging to be painted. So, okay, fine. I go in search of someone I can paint, but I can’t find a reference photo that resonates with me. Or I find one, but nothing seems to go right - I spill paint down the front of my shirt, and every brushstroke feels laborious. My paintbrush turns into my enemy, and the paint ain’t my friend. It’s been the latter lately. Just not feeling it, but I painted anyway.
I’ll be sharing the new paintings soon. I actually like the new ones better now that I’m no longer struggling to paint them, so that’s good.
I’m going to blame my low to no interest in painting on the oppressive weather. It seems to get me in a low creative state of mind every year, but this summer the humidity has kicked up several notches, making my mind even more dull.
The heat index has been over 100 most days, and the high humidity & dew point of over 70 (91 at 1 am the other morning !!!) have zapped all my energy. The AC is only capable of getting the temperature down to about 88F in my studio each afternoon. The kitchen has been about 95F because the afternoon sun blasts in through the windows. The air has been thick like soup, and rated “unhealthy” whenever I look at my weather app.
I’ve been trying to push through it, and have been painting some. but it’s hard to think, let alone think creatively. By about the third day, the muse living in my head was like, I’m outta here. I need a vacation, and just like that, she packed her bags and disappeared. Gone. I’m lost without her bossing me around giving me direction. I had no other choice, but to take a break, drink tons of water, and watched other artists paint instead.
Gussy & Harold enjoyed watching Hashim Akib painting Marvin. Gus was taking notes the entire time, I could tell. I can’t say that I blame him. Hashim’s work is beyond fabulous, and watching him perform his magic was mesmerizing. You’ll have to watch his video to see the final results. All I’ll say is wow!
Thank you YT for recommending his channel to me. If you’re not checking out what’s under the Home button on YT or have autoplay turned off, you could be missing out. Yeah, sure, the algorithm gets it wrong a lot. It will autoplay something I would never click on, like the latest horror story in the news, which I have to quickly click off. It also has played some real gems, Hashim’s video being one of many.
Idk if I posted this guy yet or not, and I’m too lazy to look. He’s one of my favorites from my new Raw Humanity series that I started a couple weeks ago. I will most likely post him a few times.
I think she’s feeling the weather lately, too. I’m not sure if this is from my art journal or not. I have so many projects/series/art journals going on, it’s hard to keep up with me & keep it all straight in my head. 😅🧑🏻🎨🖌️🎨
Some things I found online this week that are share worthy:
Merce Lemon on KEXP. I think I found my new favorite Indie band.
Why did our friends stop posting on social media? | BBC Global
TLDwatch: because SM sucks now. It’s full of ads, trolls, AI slop & the news.
In the studio with Katherine Bradford - She talks about her painting Swing Over Pool, and how it all came together. Brilliant work, as always!
I hope you have a lovely week ahead, and are surviving the heat if you’re in the US.
My work is available on Daily Paintworks, and eBay.
You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.
I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.
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