"All Hearts" My first Canvas and attempt at Acrylic Paint

September 5, 2008

 

"All Hearts" is a painting that is very personal to me on many levels of which I won't go into great detail.  

We all have times in our lives where things are not going as planned and we seem stuck, so why not paint a huge heart to help move the blockage and create something new, that's exactly what I did and I hung it in a place that would greet my family and me every day.  It served as a reminder for me each time I passed and helped me open and learn.   

This heart was born out of one of my late night inspirational meditations around the healing and growth, in which my family needed and so I included them in it as well.  My heart painting has been predominately displayed in our home since I painted many years ago when the kids were still in preschool.  

Hearts are personal on many levels to my family and me.  My own dad often bought sweet jewelry out of hearts or red jewels for my mother throughout their relationship and when I met Michael, we somehow began our own tradition, which included jewelry with hearts and red stones.  Michael has purchased me many things that have symbolic red and white jewels, and or a tiny heart display and often circles representing the constant change we go through and the union we have created our circle of our commitment to each other.  My first wedding ring has two tiny ruby hearts on both sides.  The first ring Michael ever bought me was circle of teeny diamond chips and a row of tiny red jewel that intercepted it.  Nothing big in value but deep in meaning for the both of us.  

Writing this got me on a thought wave about the importance of creativity and how it can be a catalyst of change in ones life.  I was looking up the meaning of creativity and pulled up a few definitions.  I find it amusing that Art and many Art forms are deemed extra curricular still today.  I just think it is such an outdated view of what Art is and can do. Here are a few definitions of the meaning creative and creating.  Think about the skill that they can teach. We are not talking about filling in bubbles here or busy work even though Art is often categorized as not a necessity.  Art has the power to do so much and even if we take it for just extra curricular activity and not see its full value of creating citizens whom can think, what about citizens whom can feel good about something that they take pride in and enjoy.  Well, here are the few definitions.  Think about them and think about were they can be useful.

A few definitions of creative:

-- having the ability or power to create; "a creative imagination"

-- promoting construction or creation; "creative work"

 creating:  having the ability or power to create: "a creative  imagination"

creating:  action of the verb to create

-- can the student create new product or point of view?

assemble, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, write    

-- generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things (designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing)

So back to my canvas, "All Hearts," which is the real title of the painting. 

This is a canvas, my first canvas that I did not plan on purchasing, it was actually purchased while I was on a shopping spree for the Coop nursery school my kids attended.  I came home with two huge intimidating blank canvases.   Late one night, (I do a lot of 11 p.m. or latter inspiration paintings) I asked my husband what should I paint and he said paint me a big heart, so I did and this was the result.    

It was not only healing it was truly creating a new and better pathway for the things in my life that were stuck.  Painting it helped me open and grow in ways I would only explain to my most intimate friends, but I do want to share this with you because the act of painting and or attempting Art the art form many school budgets have cut, and people belittle as being a craft or hobby has the ability in its pure form to be full of unbelievable teachable moments.  

The definition of creative is everything one needs to be super successful, and yet it is so under funded and undervalued.  The old saying, "Teach a man to fish..."   "Well I say teach them Art".  Teach the kids to think, explore, make many mistakes, correct them, rework, fail, yes fail and learn from the failures, and then go back and redesign.  Do Art. Create.... not the kind that you fill in the lines, although that has its purpose for assessment and such, I mean create.  Give permission to brainstorm and who cares what it is or looks like, permission to make one thousand mistakes and move beyond the mistakes.  Permission to open your arms wide and just let go.  This doesn't happen everyday.

"All Hearts" is about being open and letting go of the outdated and being wide open for hurt, pain and whatever awaits.  Letting the love and creative force in. 

I want everyone to feel as though they can paint their own heart or even tell your story and have someone paint it for you to display in your home.  I would gladly make a commissioned one especially for you if you choose, but I would hope that if painting is not your thing that you find a place to create your own Art.  It doesn't matter if it's Physical Art, theater, music, dance etc.  Find something that you do and enjoy the process and see were it takes you.

Open your heart to your Art!