Thursday, November 1, 2007

creative outlets.

I don't have time for a lot of hobbies.

The attic is full of half-finished projects - gesso'd canvases, bins overflowing with shells and pinecones and rocks, bolts of silk, sheet music, bags of beautiful fabrics, some even cut and pinned to pattern pieces. Materials for candles, soaps, wreaths, quilts, photo development, and jewelry making. Combine that with the mountain of dusty camping gear and it's kind of amazing that the ceiling hasn't collapsed.

I love to paint, though, and one job perk is creating watercolor sketches for my wedding cake clients. But I've got an incomplete reproduction of Van Gogh's Irises on the wall that I started over TEN years ago. I had it framed it a few years back, thinking that would somehow force me to drop everything else; instead, now it looks sort of polished and done and I don't really notice it anymore.

Sometimes, though, I actually get a whole project completed. I have an incredible godchild, and last year I was given creative license to paint a mural in his room. (Well, his parents gave me free rein - at two-and-a-half he was surprisingly vocal about what colors he did and didn't like, and what animals specifically should be sitting in which train cars). Here's what it ended up looking like:

Here's a closeup of the cows and pigs by the river.

They had a children's book with beautiful illustrations by Alison Jay and I totally ripped off the animal shapes because I loved them so much - her tiny heads with large bodies. It doesn't show in my chopped off photo above, but the family Rhodesian Ridgeback dominates the foreground, surveying the whole scene.

The newest Joyce addition is a devilish and completely adorable daughter, and I'm about to create something fun for her room, too.