Freed to be

Remember Marlo Thomas and "Free to Be You and Me?" Okay, so I'm showing my age, but that's how this painting made me feel.

After yesterday's tightly enclosed windows, and how I felt about that painting, I had to ask myself, "What is it you really want to do? What do you love? What do you FEEL like doing?"

And, not quite having an answer yet to those questions, I spent some more time exploring on Instagram, looking not so much for inspiration -- though there is plenty of that there, and lots of confirmation as well -- as just to see: what is it that I truly love?

The answer seems very consistent: strong, simple color choices, lots of negative space, collections of straight lines, undefined blocks of color, some black and white. I tend to love black and white pieces, but I don't want to own or create them; I just like the definition and contrast in them.

So today -- using what I've discovered about gestural freedom, what I've learned in the last two weeks about adding water, scraping, and fine lines, and keeping in mind what I like to look at, I created this -- and I LOVE IT!

Who knows if that feeling will last, but I am thrilled with this piece, with how much fun it was to create, with the variety and balance of it, with the freedom of it, and with how much it feels like ME, like what I'm meant to be and do.

And wouldn't it be lovely if lots of us came out of this tumultuous period in our lives with a better understanding of who we are and what we're meant to be and do?