Reframe. Try again.

It’s Finding Me Friday. If you hadn’t guessed it before, I’m a recovering perfectionist. My painting practice has significantly helped me curtail those tendencies - but every once and a while they creep back in.

I’ve noticed they seem to emerge when I’m nearing the messy middle of a canvas and I’m uncomfortable with what step to take next. The piece below was one of those. After attending a Golden textures workshop with the amazing Barbara De Pirro, I became hooked on Golden’s Fiber Paste. Part sandy, part butter. New to me and wow did I love it.

Late one weekend evening, I pulled out several 24 in x 30 in canvases, added fiber paste to each - some with paint mixed in, some without. The first few canvases were going along well, layer after layer arriving without much push, until…the last canvas. Nothing felt right. It was all over the place and I couldn’t find cohesion. So, I worked it and worked it, until the wee hours of the morning, adding to my frustration. As I neared giving up, I heard a voice in my head say, “It’s time to reframe and try again.”

Whether it was my subconscious or a message from the divine, I took a big deep breath and a big step back away from the canvas. As I stared at the canvas from a few feet away, I was surprised to find that I loved its compositional flavor - raw, unbalanced but powerful, texturally and emotionally gritty, searching for something behind a wall of unknown. It spoke not only to the experience of creating it, but also of what had been bubbling up below my emotional surface.

Sometimes when we’re in the thick of it and nothing seems to be working, putting it on pause to give ourselves the chance to breathe and change perspectives could be exactly what we need. And who knows, it might surprise you, just like it surprised me.

If you find this resonates with you, drop me a line, I’d love to hear more, info@findingmesg.com.

Keep creating.