The empath as a painter

This project has a way of exposing some of the challenges of being an empath: the collage pieces I select have an unfortunate tendency to dictate how I see the painting...

... which may be projection, of course, but this one seems almost painfully clear in its message: the window signifies a house, the blue=the sea, the green=my trees (but also a bow, as if it were a present) and the keys -- which also look a bit like a spaceman -- indicate how close we're getting to full ownership/residence.

It's certainly not what I had planned to create; it just evolved that way. But what I like best about this one -- which is echoing from the previous one -- is the white overlay of the pastel. I'm thinking I want to incorporate that into more of my work, once I'm painting on canvas again. It's an effect I've been striving for for a while, and I'm excited to have finally found the means to achieve it.

Yes, taking a class might have taught me how to do it, but hey: it's been fun, experimenting on my own! And letting the collage pieces influence me doesn't need to be a bad thing -- it's only if they take me somewhere I don't want to go that it might become an issue...