Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop – Week 1

It seems that June is the true month of inspiration!  In addition to offering my own 30 day challenge on inspiration, I saw that Gussy Sews was also offering a chance to be inspired and we can all use as much inspiration as possible, right?  So, I signed up for hers as well!  This workshop offers a once-a-week prompt and then we blog about the prompt and share our blog post with everyone on her blog at the end of the week (I can’t wait until June 2nd to see what every shares!).

This week’s prompt, in true Gussy fashion, is everything HANDMADE.

While I spent some time looking around, I stuck with the image that first came into my mind – my first oil painting – to write about.  I did this several months ago in a class with Joanie Ford, a phenomenal artist and teacher.  I loved the whole process, which took hours to complete.  I loved the texture of the oils.  I loved playing and blending them to get the color I wanted…scraping the oils off the palette and then mixing them into another color.  I loved watching as the image unfolded from a white canvas to a blob of nothingness to “what the heck – I can’t get this right” to the finished product.

I have this never-ending feeling, it seems, of not being enough, not doing enough.  This painting is different.  When I think of this painting, it all goes away.  I didn’t even realize this until I started sharing here.  My greatest weakness…the area of my life that I beat myself up the most about…completely disappears in this painting.  I have spent a lot of time staring into this painting and never have I felt like it wasn’t exactly as it was supposed to be.  It feels complete and, most importantly, good enough.  I absolutely love this painting and the feeling I have when I look at it.  I love the colors.  I love the sense of accomplishment I felt when it was done.  I love knowing that I did it – me.  I love feeling proud and fulfilled and enough.