Illness and a Dry Art Spell

I've been sick since last week. Just a digestive issue (diverticulitis) that gives me fits occasionally. I went to bed last Friday afternoon, fell asleep, and basically slept until Sunday - only arising long enough to take care of the essentials - and then going right back to sleep. I've found that is how my body handles illness - lots and lots of sleep.

Since then I've gradually felt better. There's still a lot of fatigue, but mostly no more pain.

Today was an interesting day in diverticulitis-land. I decided to have a breakfast of two poached eggs and one slice of dry toast. Nice, bland, non-irritating food - right? Within a few minutes of eating it, I was in digestive distress again, and it lasted for several hours.

Later in the afternoon, Ron came home with barbecue ribs and some pulled pork. It's the 4th of July, after all. Now I've been on a mostly liquids and soft foods diet for almost a week now. I was craving something with more flavor. So, even knowing I would likely regret it, I ate two of the ribs, maybe a couple tablespoons of baked beans, and a little pulled pork with a slice of bread. And, miraculously, I have felt fantastic ever since - and that was many hours ago. Absolutely no stomach upset or pain. It makes no sense - but I will take it!

But, enough of my physical ailments - that's over, and I'm fine now. Let's talk about art.

So I've had a "dry spell" the past week when it comes to painting.  I have done a good bit of writing the past few days - working on a writing project I've started. Writing comes fairly easy to me - especially the personal memoir/journaling type writing I've been doing. But have I done any visual art - painting - this week? Nope.

I went to my studio a couple times while I was sick, and I straightened it up a bit from when my two youngest granddaughters were here last week, I looked at some ideas I want to incorporate into a painting, I planned a couple paintings, I watched some painting videos, and I got online and ordered some art supplies (because you can never have too much!), but I didn't paint. I started to several times, but then couldn't quite muster the energy to do it.

What I have learned is that I go through phases in my painting.  Dry spells will come, and they will go. Productive spells will come, and they will go, too. Painting is a joy for me - and if I force myself to do it when it's just not in me at the time, then I will lose that joy. Now sometimes, I will tell myself I will paint for only a few minutes, and that turns into the beginning of a productive spell. But even those few minutes are too much at times. When I was sick, it was too much. And that's okay.

My project for tomorrow is to start working on one of those ideas I had last week. I'm excited just thinking about it. I also want to do more with cold wax medium. I really enjoyed the abstract art I worked on a few months ago with cold wax medium. The two pieces I completed then are the two photos with this post. I want to do that again. It was a fun technique using different tools to form different textures. I'm eager to see what I can create with it. I might even get one of my really big canvases (24 x 36 or larger) and do a cold wax abstract piece on it. Ha! I might have to buy more cold wax!

Speaking of "buying," one of the art supplies I ordered this week was gouache! I ordered a basic palette of colors, and when that package gets here, I will try out this new (to me) medium. I'm looking forward to working with the colors and seeing what I think. Gouache, by the way, rhymes with "squash" - "gwaash" - although I've heard it pronounced where it rhymes with "ash," too.

So, here's to tomorrow being a new day - feeling healthy again - the miracle of the human body and how it can heal itself - tackling new projects - and getting back into my Mary Carol Studio and wearing it out!