Teach Me To Fly

Sometimes I just like to sit and look at my paintings, and 'Teach Me To Fly' is a particular favourite of mine. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I used my little sister Bethany as my model or it's the simple message of the painting, I don't know. When I painted it, I was going through a time of feeling like I needed an extra pair of wings just to see what is the whole purpose of continuing art. I didn't feel like I was making any head way with my art at all and was beginning the feel the pressure of not surmounting to anything. That might sound silly to you, or perhaps you can relate. Anyways, you know what they say, Gotta keep movin' forward! Yeah, Okay, I don't know who says that, but it's a good motto none the less.

I had been wanting to do some kind of painting with hands and when the inspiration came to do this painting, I took hold of it. At first I tried getting eight year old Bethany to take a photo of me in this position, but she kept getting the angle wrong, and really, despite her many qualities, photography is just not one of them yet. So I asked if I could take a photo of her. I positioned her correctly then took several shots at different angles. I'm not the best photographer either but I don't need quality for a refernce photo.

When I got the shot I was looking for, I headed straight to work on painting. As always for me, the hands proved to be quite difficult to do, especially since they were both in quite a different angle from each other. It was one of those paintings where I felt like I was painting by numbers. I focused on what the photo said, despite the fact that it didn't make sense to my naked eye. Another artist once told me to paint exactly what I saw and not what I thought. Best advice ever! It came in handy because when I was finished with the hands I was kinda shocked that it looked so good.

I had never used ink before in a painting and had no idea how it would work on acylic. However, it was a fun process to learn. The ink didn't dry immediately so when I added another colour it sort of merged together artistically. I was quite pleased with the result. Love learning new things, especially when I'm not expecting it.

This little painting does indeed teach me to fly. Even now it gives me inspiration when I paint, reminding me that the catepillar could and would never dream of seeing the earth from above. for it crawls on it's belly seeing only what is directly ahead. Yet someday, after it must go through the darkest time of it's life, it will see the earth from above and drink from it's beauty. Sometimes it takes the beauty of nature to teach us a great lesson. It's not over yet and someday I'll know why I need to create art and it's importance will be very clear to me.