Fun and Failure

The first time I flew to Europe for a painting seminar the plane hit a bird and then started on fire. We were on the news. THIS time shortly after takeoff we hit a period of extreme turbulence, after which the pilot got on the intercom and calmly announced that ‘Oh, by the way, we just got struck by lightning’, but it’s really no big deal because they have things attached to the wings for just that contingency (there was a longer explanation, but that is the thesis statement. I know he is right, because I have seen the cartoon depictions and no one on the plane looked shocked or burnt after – my hair didn’t even frizz), but it still feels like being struck by lightning should be a bigger deal somehow. 

On the other hand, I can now cross “struck by lightning” off my bucket list. They always say that you are more likely to get struck by lightning than win the lottery – which I then decided means actually being struck by lightning is a kind of right of passage and my chances of winning the lottery should have gone up exponentially. Especially given the frog in my eggs – a clear portent of good luck. Combine the two together and the lottery should be the next logical step. However, it has been two months and I haven’t won yet, which may or may not be because I have utterly failed to purchase a ticket.

By the way, if you subscribe to this and didn’t know about my frog, I am guessing it is because you have a Gmail account. WordPress did some kind of update which decided Gmail was not our friend. So the froggy post was a non-Gmail having gift, and the rest of us (since I, too, have a gmail account) apparently suck. If you’re reading this, I fixed it. Fingers crossed. 

If I was a remotely sensible person I would have had plenty of time by now to complete the painting I started at my Europe class (a botanical tulip under the instruction of Mary Dillon). However, instead I found these (I don’t even know what they are called) and decided to experiment. Because who needs to actually complete anything?

Today is the last day my paintings are on display at the Hector International Airport. All of the pieces there were a bit of an experiment as I used them to play with different tools, but they all still mostly came out like something I would normally do. There are 11 total hanging in the baggage claim area. Today I present number 12 of the experiment series.

The acrylic cylinders aren’t actually mandala tools, but in my head I was pretty sure I could do something inspired by – elegant and eye catching.

But even if they were the right tools I should have known better, since I am pretty sure that kinda thing takes patience, and for the most part I don’t have any. So my circles are rather more of a hot mess.

But just because I have no idea what I am doing and it mostly looks like a disaster doesn’t mean I won’t continue to charge blindly forward, which of course I did. I am rather dubious of the end result, but I had a LOVELY time dotting circles (it’s like finger painting, only you don’t trash your hands) with reckless abandon while refusing to assist in household projects because I was “working.” So sorry. Busy. Very busy.

Completed, it is still a hot mess, of dubious art quality, and will stand out from the other experimental paintings like a very sore thumb. So it probably counts as a failure. But at least it is an interesting hot mess.

And it was super fun to play with.