One side benefit of my wheezy childhood is how, emerging from it, everything was new and foreign to me. That wasn’t fun, but I do have muscle memory when it comes to awkwardly trying things and flailing (see: socializing, hiking, running).
Still, putting effort in to change something in my life is uncomfortable. As a human designed simply for survival, my default setting is to take the easiest, most frictionless path. That path looks like my couch. It looks like basking in the sun. It looks like lolling around thumbing through Instagram all the livelong day.
Recently I had the unsettling feeling that I have been settling into patterns again and it’s almost time for something new. Yes, my patterns are in the Mobile Art Studio, in beautiful, bright southern Utah; yes I have that right mix of painting, people, and consulting. This is a world away from what we left last year: snowy/cold Alaska, a mortgage, our laptop-bound, salaried jobs that covered said mortgage.
But even in this new context I could tell something felt staid and stale. That, my friends, is my spirit’s kryptonite, even if the comfort of sameness feels good in the moment (see: couch, sun, Reels).
Luckily I don’t feel like I need a sea change like the one we’ve endured over the past few years. But it’s time for some fine tuning. Some things I’m exploring:
- New painting techniques, specifically playing with color and contrast.
- New forms of exercise, including…maybe…rock climbing. This is a big deal if you’ve known me for a while. I’ve never been into rock climbing, as someone who preferred steadier state forms of exercise. But these days, integrating some strategy, strength, and socializing into being active sounds fun. And I generally find myself on more and more red rocks naturally clambering up and around, so why not get better at it?
- New Alli Harvey Art business development strategies, including refining what I already have (website, painting presentation), finally taking the bitter pill of actively learning how to improve my social media presence, exploring in person event opportunities, and more. I have a few active Notes App files open with ideas, and I try to pace myself by just doing one art-business related task a day because it can feel overwhelming, especially on top of simply creating art.
Writing it out here makes it seem like a foregone conclusion, but for me any change is hard – particularly when I’m in that early phase of knowing in my gut that I need it, but not yet knowing what it is. Still. Future me knows that now-me doesn’t want to dither life away. So, as always I come up with my elaborate hacks to coax myself to do the things I know I need to do to live the most meaningful life I can muster.
On that note, here are some examples of the color techniques I’ve been playing with in painting. There’s a theory that if you use contrasting color beneath a painting’s predominant hue(s) and let a little bit of that color come through, it helps brighten and lift the final piece. I know my paintings probably don’t need help with color – ha! – but I am really enjoying playing with this technique. Progress shots below, of one recently completed piece, and another work-in-progress.
What do you think? Can you see a difference?
2 responses to “A little secret about me and change”
This was a technique that I recognized from living in Taos. Many artists started their canvas with the entire thing drenched in the deep navajo red.
ALYCE FRANK was one such artist whise work I adored. Barbara Zaring.
Just looked both of them up. Love.