Photo Montage | Dena McKitrick

Looking Back

Lately I’ve been looking back, re-assessing, purging, cleaning, re-focusing, clarifying, re-organizing. It’s an interesting process. One thing it has done for me is create a much more pristine space for creative expression. It’s also helped me to lay the ground for a shift in my career focus. I’m great at saying that we should follow our joy, yet I so easily fall into the shoulds (of financial considerations or any other judgemental construct) at the expense of letting my true passion(s) languish.

One of the pitfalls of having so many interests and so many things that I could do (as Melissa Dinwiddie says, I’m a “Passion Pluralite”) is that I can easily start shoulding on myself regarding what I am to spend my time doing. Even though I am constantly creatively expressing, somehow my “fine art” will frequently pull the short straw when it comes to time and attention. I am consciously letting go of my grip on the judgement that that is less than ok. Instead, I’ve decided to embrace the concept that my whole life is my constantly evolving piece of very fine artwork, and that it all falls together just divinely when I release the shoulds about any darned thing.

I woke up at O-dark-thirty involved in a vivid dream for the third night in a row today. Upon review of past experiences and promises, I’ve been once more nudged toward action. This image was a first result. Sharing it was even more of a result.

What do you glean from looking back? Do you ever should on yourself?

Bloom

Where are you growing?

Busy busy day. Still, I got in a very short walk. This year we actually had an iris bloom in our yard (a first in this home), but no tulips. I had to walk the neighborhood to find this one. The subtle floral border is a hand drawn ink border which I created for an wedding invitation over 30 years ago. It’s kind of fun recycling the old stuff which I thought was no longer useful. E-Cycling. It doesn’t save any pixels that I am aware of, yet I get warm and fuzzys thinking I might have re-purposed some.

Northern Neighbor

A Walk at Dusk

Usually this little fella hangs out in the pineapple guava tree outside our front door, and lately he’s become quite raucous. This evening, on our lengthy walk at dusk, he stood there on the neighbors roof and posed for me. It was a lovely walk. All of the orange trees are in sweet sweet bloom, and the scent of the honey locusts as we crossed the overpass coming back from the river was also simply heavenly. There were even tiny very sour plums on a tree overhanging the sidewalk. YUM!

Consternmoon

Hmmmm

Not a very original concept. I started with the scan of the facial features, and played from there. I didn’t know it would end up this way. I had fun using my new brushes and stuff.

Sweet Imagination

Telling Herstory

I feel like I’ve taken a turn, and the road back is a long way around. I’m headed forward and that feels like a good thing. I’ve been working on leaping off of the proverbial cliff with the faith that I know that I can fly. I don’t just believe it, I know it. Have you ever discovered the thrill that happens once you leap through your fear? I love it.

Tears

An Electronic Collage

This original drawing/painting is far too blatant. I felt strongly about the premise of it, however those strong feelings came through too brashly for my tastes (even though it was me that did it of course). I had fun creating several brushes, then layering textures with them. Also, by adding complimentary colors, the brash oranges and reds were softened a bit, albeit in a rather brash fashion at that. My newly created dragonfly brush helps reference the transformation the topic and the piece are going through.