Faraway Dreams
Mixed media (acrylic/paper/ink) Kate Iredale
I finally finished my latest painting…as usual it sat for weeks, untouched until last week when I got so tired of looking at it I just dived in and wrapped it up.
After years of repeating this pattern, I finally figured out what it’s all about… why I start something, let it sit unfinished for weeks, if not months…and then finish it up really quickly. It’s a very old pattern of mine that I’m (happily) changing. For much of my life, I've started projects and then not finished them. at. all. If I didn’t finish something, then I couldn’t be criticized. In fact it was only today that I realized that by not finishing, I not only couldn’t be criticised by anyone else…I got to criticize myself for never finishing anything! Oh the games we all play! LOL
Happily, once we understand our motivation (or lack there of), we’re 90% of the way to overcoming it!
I began this canvas by overlaying it with several pages that I ripped out of an old book. I wanted abstract and I wanted simple. The multi coloured portion on the left was done with a palette knife and much of the remaining image was done by rubbing paint on (and off) with a moist cloth. Finally I rubbed a stain over the finished piece (and then wiped it off) to bring up the texture.
I’m grateful today on this, the 20th day of the 30 Days of Gratitude Photo Project, that I finished this painting!
Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of resistance.
Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul.
That’s why we feel so much resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there’d be no resistance.
Steve Pressfield, The War of Art
