Musical Monday (35) + Other Stuff, like Paint

Every Monday I post whatever song I can't get out of my head or just can't get enough of, because Mondays can often be less than marvelous, and music is happy--even when it's sad. If you'd like to join the party, just make your own Musical Monday post and leave a comment!

This week's song is "Writers' Blok" by Jackson Pearce, author of the delightful As You Wish and the soon-to-be-released-but-already-being-shipped-from-online-stores Sisters Red. She posted this video on her blog last Monday when I was in the thick of final papers, paintings, and prints and really good at finding other things to do instead. It's funny, creative, and true--and I hope you like it. If you do, Pearce has put the song up as a free download here.

Enjoy! And then keep scrolling down for fun things like pictures.


Great video, yes?
Back in March I posted about my painting class and mentioned that the first assignment required me to draw inspiration from a piece of literature, and I chose Paper Towns by John Green. Lauren left a comment asking if anyone would get to see the painting. The answer to that question is "No," because it didn't turn out well. It was over-planned and too labored, and didn't end up looking that great. On the plus side, though, it was a lesson in using inspiration but not letting it control me, and I learned more about what paint can do through all the experimenting I did on that one. Lately I've been trying out different ways of applying paint and using texture, and I'm also playing with abstract figures and forms. So while you don't get to see that painting, I don't see why I can't share a couple others. The following two photos show the two paintings that I consider to be my most successful of the semester:

This one is still leaning on my easel, and you can see portions of some notes I wrote myself on the chalkboard behind it.

You may have noticed that there's a headless woman in both paintings. On the first one, I just didn't feel she needed a head. (A friend jokingly informed me that this is sexist (haha!), but there's no intellectual reason for the headlessness. I just didn't think a head would fit compositionally.) On the second, I ran out of canvas. The above two paintings were completely unplanned (because I'm also playing with being spontaneous), and since I didn't know the purple shape would become a woman, I didn't know she'd need space for a head. But it worked out; she looks all mysterious now.

This woman appears in a couple other paintings, and she has a head there, as in this one, which is just a portion of the entire painting, since I'm not completely satisfied with it yet:


Over the summer I'm supposed to think about what she might mean, but all I have so far is that she's fun to paint :) I'm not sure what direction I'm going as I keep painting, and I'm not even sure that I like the direction I decided to go over the last couple months, but I'm sure I'll have an enjoyable adventure figuring all that out.
And now you know what I'm doing when I'm not reading :)

Wishing you a Magnificent Monday,