 |
| Recovery: I wet the entire surface of an old watercolor painting. Then I used a variety of scrapers to reveal the white paper underneath. Next I added another layer of shapes in acrylic paint. |
Since returning from Italy, I have been doing yoga five days
a week with a variety of yoga instructors. Walking throughout central
and southern Italy was a great experience, but that much walking tends to tighten
the hamstrings and calves. So my first goal in deciding to do yoga Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday was to stretch my hamstrings. And
that did happen in January.
But I had no idea how intensifying my practice could bring
other exciting physical recoveries. In February I began to notice that the stiffness in my left leg
and hip was beginning to loosen, resulting in a slight improvement in my
balance and a vastly improved triangle pose.
I got really excited when, with my hands clasped behind my
head while lying on the floor, I felt the elbow of my left arm touch the floor
simultaneously with my right elbow. My left arm has had mobility limitations
since I broke it nearly two years ago. My physical therapist had gotten me to
the 80% functionality the doctors had said was the maximum I could expect. I
wanted more than that and my physical therapist encouraged me to keep working
toward that goal. I think I’m up to 90% now and I’m not done!
 |
| Unlocking A Broken Heart: All that remains of the original acrylic painting are the brown color and large red shape. |
For years I have wrestled with stiff hip and back muscles
that compromised my flexibility. These were the result of the sitting required
at my job. Although I had been able to stop the psoas muscles from seizing up
by using a ball chair, sitting still constricted them, leading to tightness in
my sacrum and lumbar region. In mid-February I experienced the first loosening
of my back muscles when I was able to roll back and up into a supported
shoulder stand.
In my artwork I have been wrestling with recovering my sense
of color, layering techniques, and the looser painting style I used to have. The
desire to recover these skills arose from a review of my Eve paintings. They were
done in a palette of blues and greens with touches of Burnt Orange or Terra Rosa.
I suspect I was drawn to cool colors because of the extreme stress of my job
during the time that I began this series.
So recently I did several “play” pieces to begin my skills
recovery journey. Recovery and Unlocking A Broken Heart are acrylic. I
did Chinese New Year in gouache to
warm up for the mandala class I’m teaching. All were painted on paper, on
top of failed work from the past, thus I had nothing to lose.
 |
| Chinese New Year 2015: May the year of the sheep, goat, or ram be filled with deliberate actions and expansive creativity. |
