The rosiest of things.

Isn't this picture just awful at first glance? 

But, look again.  There IS a bit of color, happy, wonder and delight tucked in.  You just have to focus your mind on THAT instead of the piles and mess.  Reminds me of life.  

And friends, this is why I create.  I started painting a few months ago and found a new kind of freedom and joy in creating I hadn't ever experienced before.  Words can't even adequately describe it.  I suppose I'll let Georgia O'Keeffe say it best "I found that I could say things with colors and shapes that I couldn't say any other way. "  Yes, Miss O'Keeffe, yes. 

As I paint a canvas, I find myself thinking of the happiest, most hopeful of things.  It's when I combine the painting with encouraging words and phrases that the magic happens for me.  The canvas becomes more than just another piece of art.  It becomes a lifeline, a banner, a declaration of all that is good and worthy of being celebrated in this life.  

My hope and pray for my upcoming Etsy shop is that the pieces that fill it will be like the wonder and delight in the picture above.  Perhaps a phrase will catch your eye on one of my canvases and it can become your solid ground you stand on when life looks a bit messy like the scene above. 

I've been so busy lately ordering mailing supplies, designing this site, preparing to open my Etsy shop that I haven't had a chance to connect my fingers with the paintbrush and canvas.  In a way, I think this has been a blessing in disguise.  My mind and sketchbook are spilling over with ideas, too many to count.  I'll be announcing my shop opening date soon, but I'm happy to say it will be around the first of June.  I will be offering 8 x 10 prints of my canvases, and then later adding some originals and possibly other sizes of prints as well. 

I read in Kelly Rae Robert's course that a creative business is 75% working/business stuff and 25% creativity and painting.  So far that's been very true.  I am working so, so hard on this little dream of mine.  I believe in it.  Brett believes in it.  I'm excited to see where this journey takes me.  I'll be sharing a few behind the scenes stories about my canvases soon! 

'Till next time,

here's to focusing on the rosiest of things.