Working Hard

I’ve been painting more. Painting is scary for me. Graphic arts are so much more safe and forgiving, and easy. After all I’ve been doing it for about 13 years and for the most part, it comes naturally.

I first discovered my love for drawing in the 5th grade. I always just assumed I wasn’t good at it before then, and had other interests, so I hadn’t even tried. To my surprise, I wasn’t too bad. But after those classes – for some reason or another – I abandoned drawing, only to take it up sporadically in the years following.

So fast forward to last year, and I’ve been having the most unshakeable urge to paint and draw. After my drawing challenge last fall, I rediscovered my passion for it and have been shaking the dust off my rusty skills to see where it goes.

There is a local painter here in Oklahoma City, whose work captured me immediately when I saw it on display in a local art gallery. I recently met with her, and she told me the 5 words that gave me the push I needed – “you need to work hard.”

Understanding that I have to be willing to fail and create bad art while I learn, I’ve been painting with abandon. So I got out my oils the other day while the husband took the boys to the zoo. I created a decent painting, but I could not get her second eye right. So right now the painting looks like this:

And of course my dear husband (ever the comic) had to completely deface it by cutting an eye patch for her out of paper. Haha, honey. 🙂

I’m not sure where my art will take me in 2012, and I think I will always have a love for the craft arts and DIY projects I’ve done through the years, but be prepared to see more art related posts, as I pursue this passion that I just can’t ignore.