The Eye of the Beholder

As I think I mentioned before, I've been taking a watercolor class from Jeannie Grisham, and yesterday we were invited to slap paint on a page and then to go over the work with a sort of cropping tool to see what ideas for paintings might be hiding in the mess.

Jeannie helped us by going around the room and peering over each artist's work, sliding her little squares around and exclaiming over the delightful possibilities she found. We would get all excited, thinking about our potential paintings, but then when we went back -- well, it was very hard to see what she saw.

I did manage to find this one, buried in the layers of paint, so I thought I'd photograph it to see how it might render. But of course once it's photographed it needs a name. And that's when I realized again how much of what we see is colored by our moods -- because all I could think of to call it was "hurling" or "flailing."

Tells you something about how I feel at the moment, doesn't it. But I've decided to do what I often do at such times: I'm going to channel all this restless energy into some creativity. I have an opening tonight at the Gallery, for our Women Behind the Lens show, so I've decided to make myself a pin -- or maybe a scarf clip -- out of one of the images I submitted. Plus I have a friend coming over this afternoon to help me learn cockney for my role in Peter Pan. Before you know it my husband will be walking through the door and I'll be able to get down to the real work of the day: helping my daughter walk through her grief.

Til then -- well, I think it's time to play!