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08/03/2007: "My Boyfriend Ate My Exhibit & Other Excuses...I won't need!"
Last night Aaron basically forced me to start painting. It was already 9 in the evening and we’d just finished a big dinner…I was feeling relaxed and just wanted to cuddle on the couch but he wouldn’t take any excuses!
He helped me determine which pieces to concentrate on finishing first so they can be used for publicity purposes. He also helped point out problems I was having difficulty identifying within the first painting I started working on. It’s sometimes helpful to have another pair of eyes weighing in on the matter. And so, I started painting.
I was surprised that I could paint quite comfortably upstairs…in the same room with him while he read on the couch. It didn’t bother me at all that he was there, probably because he knew better than to interrupt me with unsolicited feedback.
The only problem was that I’d told him earlier to not let me paint past 11 because I had to get up very early this morning to teach a class on campus. And he was as belligerent getting me to stop painting as he had been about getting me to start!
Because now that I’ve started, oooooooh….it’s SO FREAKING SWEET!
The truth is, I LOVE TO PAINT!
Really, it’s true. I’m obsessed. I love it with every inch of my being. And, particularly this stage. With oils, it takes forever for them to dry but once they do, the second coat is where the fun begins. It’s more of the glazing, more of the finishing touches that make the pieces start to really glow. Stopping last night was so hard (I also confessed to Aaron my need to repeatedly get out of bed, go upstairs, turn the lights on and look at my painting for awhile before crawling back into bed)…last night I only did that once but back when I was single I used to lay in bed at night just obsessing about problem areas and couldn’t go to sleep until I went up to look at them over and over again.
Tonight Aaron is going to go wander around for the First Friday art openings without me and I’m going straight home to paint. He said last night that he didn’t want to feel responsible for me not painting and honestly, it’s never been because of him. Seems I’ve had the ability to paint with him around all along. Maybe some of my “hang-ups” are all in my head?
Anyway, I should have the three “press” images photographed by tomorrow night at the latest so I’ll post them in here when I’m done. I’m also moving the old “Works in Progress” galley to a new “From on High” gallery, since that show was over a year ago. I hope to put real “in progress” stuff in that gallery soon. One step at a time.