As I Half Fell Asleep Breastfeeding In The Dark One Night, I Clearly Saw The Paintings I Had Yet To Create Come To Me One By One......
I'm Back!
Kind of....
Baby Ean was born on July 28th at 2:42am, totally healthy but rather small at 4 lbs 14 oz.
He's a month old now (!!!!) and already closing in on 8 lbs. We're all happy and healthy if not tired and stressed as new parents are. (Is he eating enough? Is he sleeping enough? Is he sleeping too much?)
Work-wise, I'm enjoying this break and the potential to be present with Ean. At first, I would put something on TV to wake me up and distract me during our multiple nighttime feedings, but more recently, I've kept the TV off, the lights dim and paid closer attention to the silence and Ean's soft noises (and sometimes really loud screaming).
It was during one of these feedings a few weeks ago when I was kind of dozing in and out that a wave of images washed over me gently. I could picture all the paintings I wanted to create for my Fall 2017 Southwest Collection.
The painting inspiration often happens like this ~ lying in bed falling asleep, or in some other half waking place ~ colors and compositions come to me and I can just clearly see what I should try to make. If I'm awake enough perhaps I'll jot down some notes and hope that I'll remember what it was in the AM. (Remember that Seinfeld where Jerry writes down a joke on a napkin in the night and then the next day he can't remember at all what the joke was supposed to be and in the end it was pretty much nothing? So true!)
For instance, this painting had been bouncing around my brain for at least six months before I actually painted it. And actually at the start, I was thinking I would paint it much much larger:
As I write up this email (after Ean has finished his 2am meal and is making soft sleep sounds in his bassinet), I'm filled with the happiness that comes when you are sitting in darkened silence with nothing to do and nowhere to be. Just breathing.
This week I'm going to start painting what's in my head and hope it translates from inspiration to canvas. I'm calling this Fall 2017 Collection "Bleached"...find out why and see some pretty inspiration photos over in this post.
Okay, back to bed. Good night/morning!
xo,
Hannah