Monday...

First off a little family promotion:  If you are interested in some good fiction and better advice please tune into Crimson's blog. Interested in the Shadoe Stone's product line? Remember that we don't have a webpage yet, so see us on Facebook.  Finally, my mother is an amazing crafter and has turned her crochet into an amazing business on Facebook, Handmade by Phyllis by name.

Now onto our Monday...

3Ps is the MWF theme, we are only a few weeks in so there isn't much feedback and even less of a conversation about what you would like to see more and/or less of; so I shall continue in what has started.  Please always feel free to comment here or contact me directly.

Shades of Grey, Dawn Cowan

Speaking about black and white photography and poetry by colors in the last few weeks inspired this piece.  Sadly, it did not photograph well from my tablet.  The texturing of the paint is part of what makes my works compelling, if you believe they are at all, and in this one the red seems to be climbing out of the black and grey.

Color is great for making things pop out at you.  While the grey-scale photo with a red rose is almost trite now, the opposite is just as effective if properly done.  A riot of color is great, drop in a grey-scale aspect and suddenly you have stillness within chaos.  My favorite play with color in photography  though is when the colors are soft and still crisp and clean.  A photo shot in the night shadows, with spots of light for instance.

Spanish Moss at Night-Dawn Cowan

I have almost run out of my "found" acrylics and I am done with the canvases afforded to me by the sale (except, maybe, the one I am painting over) so I am done with painting for now.  It makes me sad when I can't get out what is in my head.  Okay fine, it pisses me off that it's money that is causing the problem.

I have dreams about the amazing things I can do with canvas and paints.  I drool over wall sized canvas and buckets of acrylic paint.  I would adore being able to create mixed media art pieces using my camera, paintings and some of my craft work.  Heck, I just want an easel, canvas and some paint too.

Love what I am doing and want to see more?  I am now on Patreon.

Mistakes

"We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents." -Bob Ross

Painting is easy in some ways.  Canvas, paint brushes, and paint meet and a picture is made.  What happens though when the picture in your mind and the one on the canvas don't match?  Or worse they do and then your brush grabs wrong and the color runs in the wrong way. What do you do?  Do you leave the painting as it is and give up on it?  Do you try and work with the mistake and make a new picture that is similar but incorporates the mistake, makes it beautiful?  Do you work with the mistake and make something new, something unique?

I think you know where this is going.  Mistakes happen in life just like they do in painting. What we do with them determines how we live.  Are we going to spend our lives stressed out and trying to fix so much that we never even get the chance to live?  Conversely, if we just ignore the mistakes and go on as if they never occurred, is that the correct response?  How you go on after a mistake is made often determines the size of the mistake.

Crimson is a big fan of Bob Ross.  Her Shadoe Stones product line is "Happy Trees" in his honor. Mr. Ross was a man who knew how to turn a mistake around on canvas.  Remaining calm is often a large part of the process.  I do not paint in Mr. Ross' style at all. I place emotions on canvas in an almost haphazard way.  Then came the day that I needed to form a picture to correctly carry the emotion I needed. I wanted a sky and a hill with trees. I used a watercolor paint for the first time ever, it was blue for the sky.  Then I went to put light into the sky and boom green.  Well, shit.  Yellow and blue make green.  Acrylic paint is fluid. Watercolors are "WATER" colors for a reason.  Yeah, so now we have a blob of green in the sky...how do we fix it?  Do we accept that the painting isn't going to be what it was supposed to be?  Do we try and make it fit anyway?  How do we fix this mistake? I tried fixing it. Made it worse. I then ran with it. I am uncertain how I feel about the finished product, I am not even certain, yet, that it is finished. Heck, I may use that time honored tradition of painting over. Going to need new paints for that, so it will have to wait.

We can't hit rewind in life. We live with our mistakes small and large.  It is what you do with them that makes life. I try very hard to live with no regrets. Every decision I have made right and wrong has brought me to where I am, and that is a beautiful thing.

The aforementioned painting.  I have done worse...and I have done better, a lot better!

 Love what I am doing and want to see more?  I am now on Patreon.

Inspiration-Poetry (Color)

 Inspiration comes from many directions for all kinds of art.  A sunset, a toy, a person, or a conversation can all trigger the creative instinct.  The "Color Cycle" is a three poem set that began following a conversation.  The conversation was with an African American woman who had grown up as a member of the only African American family in a small town in Texas.  She had been told by family and friends that being dark was bad, having natural hair was unprofessional and basically that she was unattractive because of nothing more and nothing less than her genetics.  I wasn't shocked as much as I was saddened.  The young lady is beautiful, by the by. Hearing the hurt in her voice made me want to weep.  As a shockingly white woman raised in the Mid-West, I am no judge of the African American community and I am not trying to be.  I just wanted to help one person feel better and the words helped me feel better as well.

Color

#1

Why is nude a color?

Why is it not just an expression of who we are,

Skin tone holds no sin.

Be Proud of who and what you are.

Bathe in the beauty of you

#2

Why limit yourself to the colors of a rainbow?

Create Love and live outside the boundaries.

Let life be limitless and grow beyond your wildest dreams.

#3

All the shades of beautiful

How many crayons are in your box?

Where is your paper bag?

Do NOT limit your vision

Do NOT limit your choice.

Look at all of the shades

See all of the beauty

I am more then aware of my privileges.  I was raised well, by people who loved and celebrated me for who I was.  They wanted the best for me and that included education, food and shelter.  I have had familial support for my entire life.  Some people, of any color, do not have that support.  That support is what has given me the confidence to be who I am and be happy about it.  I could not be a creator now if it weren't for my family then.  For some it is the opposite, they created (and indeed still do) to escape their circumstances and are inspired by pain.  Most often, I find joy within my creative cycle.

Inspiration in writing, especially poetry, is like a lightning bolt for me.  It is in my head and it must get out.  It doesn't care if it is the middle of the night, middle of a conversation or the middle of another creation; it wants out now.  I have found that if I resist those impulses I lose the words. If I do it often enough and for long enough they stop coming entirely.  The first time I lost the words completely, when my head was silent, was a relief.  For about a month.  Then I was lonely.  I tried to force the words. It didn't work.  I had to live my life and wait for them to come back.  They did eventually and I am glad.  It took me actually participating in life not letting it pass me by.  Every day that I am sick I worry that they will go away again.  I can't participate the way I used to and want to so how long can the words last? I am going to be writing them down for as long as they do.

Celebration-Dawn Cowan 

If you pay attention there is beauty all around you.  Whether you write, paint, take photos, or talk recreate that beauty and share it with the world.  The world deserves more artists.  Love what I am doing and want to see more?  I am now on Patreon.