Monday, December 21, 2015

Gifts of Imperfection

A couple of years ago I took an online course offered by Brené Brown. For the class, I kept an art journal in which I worked my way through various exercises, the first of which was to write myself some permission slips.

Excerpt from September 2013:

I give myself permission to …

• get messy
• say no
• be me
• let go of pleasing others
• be awkward and clumsy
• feel joy
• try new things
• have fun
• come out of hiding
• forgive myself
• get my shoulders away from my ears
• breathe
• feel sad
• not know the answer
• show up
• be seen
• love myself
• pray
• trust myself
• feel uncomfortable
• open my heart
• fail
• laugh

Guess I opened that can o' worms!

Couldn't be happier.

Rising Strong
4.5x3.25", acrylic, ink, and pastels on watercolor paper
abstract
2015
[not for sale]

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Dotty, I really like your use of dark color.

Sheila said...

Love your list! And the texture in this piece is terrific1

dotty seiter: now playing said...

Ann, great fun to get your comment. I mixed up the "black" and "gray" from who knows what colors (can't remember what was on my palette) but I know your recent blog posts about chromatic blacks and grays were tickling me to play around. Love that my use of dark color is what caught your attention!

dotty seiter: now playing said...

Hi Sheila, thanks for your comment. Little did I know when I wrote that list that I would begin painting for the first time eight months later. The texture in the painting comes from my using the back of the cover of a pad of Strathmore Canvas Paper—very interesting texture, which got highlighted by my use of wax pastels.

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